WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1922, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

BEEF CONSUMPTION

A NATIONAL DUTY. SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. WELLINGTON, July 19. The Prime Minister and Mr David Jones, the Chairman, of the Meat Control Board, are starting a mild agitation for the promotion of beef consumption within the Dominion. Beef it seems, even beef of the best quality, is a drug in the 1 oiulon market, owing to the large supplies being sent torward from South America, and i'll Massey and .Mr Jones between them have conceived the happy idea that il the people of the Dominion could he induced to out more beef and less mutton and lamb it would he a very good thing for the country in general and tin' farmers in particular. The demand for mutton and land) at Home is comparatively good-and likely to he better, but there appears to he no prospects before beef. In the-House yesterday afternon Mr Jones put a. question to the Prime Minister on the subject nml, of course, got the expected reply hut the fate of their scheme depends largely upon the action of the retail butchers. If they offered beet for local consumption at the London parity they probably would not lack for buyers. . ECONOMY CAMPAIGN. Already it is evident in the House of Representatives that Mr Mnasty's road to the economies in public expenditure j will he a very rocky one. While business men an dvarious organisations are insisting that the pruning knife must he applied ruthlessly to all administrative expenditure, numbers of members of Parliament are protesting that this „r another of the Services ought to he c,minuet! and this or another salary spared. Tho general election has come at a most inopportune time for both Ministers and private members, ami though the “Dominion” is assuring them that courage never yet cost a politician his popularity, history is not very comforting oil this point. ions retrenchment has usually been lollowed bv a. change of Government and tliomdi this does not seem likely to happen in the present instance, many of Mr Massey’s followers are concerned on their account. Tt seems likely indeed that, tho changes in the new Parliament, assuming that there "in he no amendment of the- electoral law this season, will bo changes rather ol personnel than of colour. INEFFICIENCY. The debate oil .the Address-in-Reply, which at the week-end was expected to conclude last night, still drags on. Members are working short hours ami obviously limiting their output. In the circumstances flippant humourists on the Opposition side of the Chamber may be pardoned for smiling at the rebuke administered last night by the Postmaster General to tlie employees of the Departments under his control. “Decreased efficiency,” the Minister said “crept among the people of Now 1 ‘ i" m i

Zealand during the war years. In the Post Office the decreased efficiency in certain grades was about 20 per pent. There fins been no determination to go slow, but just a gradual slackening off of everybody.” In other parts of the Post Office the decrease'is estimated to he from 16 to 17 per cent. Whether the blame for the slackness Mr Coates lias detected rests with the employees or the administration is a moot question. But that the cost of the Department lias enormously increased during recent years and that its “product” has largely declined are unpleasant facts established beyond all dispute. REVELATIONS.

Tlie revelations respecting certain negotiations between the Liberal Party am! the Official Labour Party, which had been anticipated with much satisfaction by members on the other side of the House, brought to light yesterday afternoon nothing more dreadful than tho*facts already recited in these columns. Tlie ITon George Fowlds and Mr P. J. O’Regaii, two ardent proportional representationists, conceived ■ the notion that by obviating vote splitting between the Liberal and Labour candidates at tliq general election a Parliament ready to carry out the electoral reform dear to their hearts might be secured. With them to think is to act. Apparently the leaders of the parties concerned wore prepared to negotiate on a settled basis for securing the ends Mi Fowlds and Mr O’Regaii had in view, hut the rank and file of the two groups could not get rid of their mutual suspicions and so the scheme, for the time, fell to the ground. A politician with a more delicate sense of the properties would scarcely have dragged such an incident on to the floor of the II ouse, but Mr Holland does not, after all, appear to have done much harm to any of those involved in the proposal.