WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1922, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

CHEAPER MONEY

GOVERNMENT DELAYS BORROW ING.

SfkciAL tP GUARDIAN

WELLINGTON, Feb. 27

When it was announced a few days ago that the Australian States were getting money in London at 4J- per cent it wag thought probable the Prime Minister would re-enter the market and obtain at the reduced rate the two or three millions the Government could turn to very good use just now. But questioned on the subject on Saturday Mr Massey said he had all the funds lie required up to the end of the financial year on March 31, and would seek no further loan till after that date. His abstinence from furl’ er burrowing for the present may be due to an undertaking with the brokers when he raised the five million loan last year, but in any ease it is satisfactory to learn that he has all the money he needs in the meantime and that he expects to do even better than the Australian States have done when he makes his next appeal to

the London money market. There is a fouling in finanial circles here, however, that the decline in the rate of interest is due largely to temporary causes and that Mr Massey is not justified in counting upon still cheaper money three or four months hence. wages And prices. The lesults of the deliberations of the Cost of Living Conference, convened by the Employers’ Federation and l chl here last week, were communicated to the newspapers oil Saturday. There was a Very representative attendance, nearly fill the business, manufacturing an 1 trade associations of the Dominion guiding delegates, and the conference appears to have been unanimous in insisting upon , a corresponding reduction

in prices following upon any reduction in wages. “All present,” one paragraph in the official report of the proto'dings runs, “ concurred in the view that a universal reduction in prices was t!- e only way to ensure a re-establish-ment of trade on a safe and prosperous fo ting and to obviate unemployment.” T’te “Dominion” in commending the ■altitude of the Conference insists that tic adjustment it proposes would cons irute “not ail attack on wages, but an essential Step towards maintainihg both real wages and employment,” a i iew which does liot appeal to the leaders of ouieilii Laiioiif. These gentlemen maintain that the Conference was deliberately designed to influence the Arbitration Court towards lower wages without waiting.for reduced prices. But many of the workers are looking a little sceptically upon this contention an increasing liumbe- of Beni having begun to realise tliat their employers are n t necessarily th'ic enemies. THE MEAT POOL.

The members of the Producers’ Committee and of the Parliaivcu’ary Meat Pool Committee are meeting here today for the purpose of electing ti e five representatives of the producers on the board that is to dmect the operations of the “Meat Pool.” Three of the elected representatives will Bold office mtil August of next year and two until lUgust 1924, so that they all will have .n opportunity to play an important ■ art in shaping the destiny of the scheme, but there does not appear at fhe moment to be a great deal of i’i'er e.st in the proceedings. This is due ir a measure to the fact that it is now certain the compulsory pooling provison of the -Meat Export Control Act will not he applied during the present season. The Act specially recognises existing contracts and these are numerous enough to make it quite impossible for the board to assume effective control of the output for some time to come. This does not mean the abandonment of any essential feature of the schemes, but it may lead to the modification of some of its provisions.

PIJ] LIC WORKS AND .UNEMPLOYMENT. The Hon J. G. Coates’s suggestion that the progress of certain railway linos now in the course of construction will depend to a large extent upon the amount of unemployment prevalent during the winter months rs not escaping adverse criticism. The Minister, according to the summary of his remarks telegraphed from Auckland, •while declaring that only three railway works should be proceeding at tine present timtv—the North Auckland, Midland and ' Waikokupu—expresses his. readines to put a number of others in hand should men he wanting work later ott. This leads like a rather startling reversal ,of the poliy Mr Coates laid down for himself when he first assumed office. Then tlie building of little scraps of railway here and there, which La i been the policy cf two generations of Ministers, was to be renounced and the efforts of the Department were to be concentrated on arterial lines approaching completion. Now, apparently, this is to be modified to the extent of’ making the discharge of the Minister’s pious resolution dependent upon circumstances which again and again have proved too much for his predecessor in office.