WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 February 1922, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

END OF THE SESSION,

PARTING SHOTS. SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. WELLINGTON, Feb. 13 It was a weary House that met at LI o’clock on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches to the work of the session. “Legislation by exhaustion” had been proceeding in a more or less acute form since the resumption after the Christmas-New* Year adjournment and members were in no humour to unnecessarily prolong the experience. Most of the northern and southern representatives had made up their minds to get away that night, and Ministers had the cordial co-operation of friends and opponents alike in expediting the concluding formalities. There were, however, one or two “incidents” during the day which betrayed the frayed nerves inseparable from toilsome days and sleepless nights. There were unanswered questions and unproduced returns, the railway cut and pension anomalies, the Mangahao strike and unrelieved farmers, the High Commissioner’s furniture and civil service grievances, ministerial parsimony and departmental waste, unfulfilled promises and flagrant evasions. All these and many other things of the kind were mentioned as reminders to the Government, no doubt, that the courtesies of a parting speech were not to he mistaken for the surrender of a party distinction or a political principle. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER.

The supplementary estimates, as usual, provided the material for some parting shots at the Government’s administration. A sum of £IOOO allocated to Sir James Allen, the High Commissioner, “towards expenses in securing and furnishing housing accommodation ’ having caught the eye of the leader of the Opposition, that gentleman declared it to be “a most extraordinary item.” What was the matter with Sir James’s salary of £2OOO a year, his travelling allowance of £IOOO a year and his various perquisites? Mr Massey explained that the cost of living and the cost of entertainment had largely increased in recent years and that the High Commissioner could not lie expected to provide the additional expenditure out of his own pocket. The send off given to himself after the last Imperial Conference must have absorbed the whole of the £250 allowed Sir Jaines for entertainment. There nere VOU New Zealanders present. This brought Mr H. E. Holland to his feet with an angry protest. The Do-

minion did not want a representative living in Oriental splendour in London. It wanl.’d a plain business man without rt ills to look after its affairs and to leave “class functions” and “butterfly en eriaimnents” alone. But the House as amused without being impressed, il re j. cied a proposal to strike out t; c item by twenty-six votes to eleven. “WILD STATEMENTS.’’ Mr R. McCallum, the member for Wairau, found an opportunity in the presentation of the estimates to repeat what the Minister of Lands stigmatised as wild statements concerning the purchase by the Government of the M .tutara Estate in the Auckland district from Sir Edwin Mitchelson for soldier settlement. The statements were to the effect that the land had l>een purchased at a price far above the land tax valuation and that its fertility could he maintained only by the application of huge quantities of costly manure. Behind these allegations was a suggestion that Sir Ediwn Mitchelson had “beaten” the Government in the transaction and the positive assertion that lie was “clever” and “shrewd.” It did not seem to the ordinary listener that anything the member for Wairau had said was so extremely offensive, but after the Minister of Lands had replied, more in sorrow thai in anger, Mr Massey fell upon Mr VlcCallum with scathing intensity. It was the most atrocious slander that had ever been uttered in the House and it v. ould be probed to the bottom with disastrous results to its author. It was the most impassioned outburst upon which the Prime Minister had embarked during the session. And his victim appeared quite unperturbed. THE PARTIES. As the session ended; almost with in the shadow of an approaching genera! election it was only natural that the prospects of the patties in the in’, pending struggle should have been mentioned during the closing scenes. Mr Massey expressed himself quite onifdent of the result of the appenl to the constituencies. That probably would have been his attitude in any case, but even his opponents admit that his personality and superior organisation will count for much in the contest. Mr Wilford and Mr Statham expect the revival of the Liberal-Labour alliance to exercise a very important influence an on the polling. They claim that the ««nbination is representative of a larger section of voters than the »i 1 that returned the Reformers tp office three years ago. The Labour Party is looking to a substantial acquisition of numerical strength and to the ultimate absorption of all the really progressive forces, hut it realises that its time is not just yet.