WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 July 1922, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TfrE G OVERNt>R-GENERAL’S

SPEECH

BREVITY WITHOUT WIT. 6FECIAL TO GUARDIAN. WELLINGTON, June 30. The local newspapers are not profoundly impressed by the quality ol the speech put into the mouth of flis Excellency the Governor by his responsible advisers at the opening of Parliament on Wednesday. The ’’Post,” beginning by calling it a dull performance, goes oil to say it was “too flat, too dull, too i insipid to attract, to repel or to interest.” The evening journal has not a word of praise even for its brevity. “Such a monotony of dullness,” it declares, “is powerless to produce any emotion hut that of weariness.” Proceeding from generalities to particulars, after sighing for the good old days “when Mr Scddon was accustomed to do these tilings in a much brighter style,” it complains that of the two tilings Lord Jcllieoe was made to say about the League of Nations one was inaccurate and the other superfluous. Of j course the “Speech from the Throne,” itself a relic from a by-gone age which very well might be committed to the limbo of forgotten things, always lends i i self to treatment of this kind from the cynical writer, hut oil this occasion his opportunities appear to have been particillarlv tempting. THE PROBLEM OE ECONOMY. The “Dominion” finds no more inspiration in the Speech than does the “Post" ami a little irrelevantly vents its disappointment upon that well itttentioiied body, the Welfare I-engue which recently entered, a little timidly it would seem, into the field of finance to urge in familiar platitudes the need for drastic economy. “Wlnit does the Welfare League mean,” it asks, “when iL says the Government is right to practice economies and wrong to cut oil any part of the increased salaries which have helped to make economy necessary 'r" Is the League like some of the politicians, shirking an unpleasant : task ?” • Of course the League is not shirking an unpleasant task—the good work it has attempted in other directions should save it from that suspicion

—hut quite likely it does not fully realise the magnitude of the problem confronting the Government. Mr Massey is pledged to a saving ot some five millions and this saving is not going to he effected by any of the palliatives suggested by the League. It is only by a radical operation the i<mt ol the trouble can he removed. THE C UT.

The various Civil Service organisations have been hard at,work during the recess and members of Parliament from all parts of the Dominion .have come to Wellington fully armed with arguments against the enforcement of the second cut in salaries. Yesterday the Government was bombarded with questions on the subject, chiefly from the Opposition honchos, and at the conclusion of the assault the Prime Minister promised tin In* would make a statement in which he would reveal the financial position of the Dominion and outline tin* intentions of the Government. Mr Mas sov gave no hint of the course he would follow, hut there is a feeling pervading the lobbies that the cut will he at least iwistpoijed. It i- understood that the President of the Arbitration Court lias been unable to discover any further decline in the cost of living since his last report and. that he is disinclined to make any recommendation which would he helpful to the Minister. In these circumstances .Mr Massey’s position is an extremely difficult one and at the moment some of his political friends do not. appear to be giving him much assistance in his dilemma. A MINISTER RESTRAINED.

Not because there is any popular illwell towards the Hon C. J. Parr, wdio is conscientious and zealous in the discharge of the duties of his high office, hut been use public sympathy always goes out to a woman in distress, then* is general rejoicing that the Alblister of Education has been restrained by an injunction of the Supreme Court, pronounced by Air Justice Salmond trom taking the proceedings he had contemplated to deprive .Miss Park of her teacher’s certificate. Miss Park, it will he remembered had been accused ol tending towards disloyalty in her written and spolson utterances, and of refusing to submit to (lie discipline ol the constituted authority. Though Air Justice Salmond was not called upon to pronounce anv opinion on these points it is fairly obvious from his carefully prepaid! judgment that lie did not think she had been guilty of anything worse than a trivial indiscretion. There should he no question about Aliss Park’s loyalty in the broad practical sense, and her definition of the sovereign’s place in the constitution is one the most ardent loyalist might accept.