WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1926, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PARLIAMENT AS USUAL. NO EARLY SESSION. (Special to “ Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, February 4. The Prime Minister’s statement that Parliament this year will meet at the usual lime, whether an Imperial Conference is held or not, will set' at rest many speculations concerning the intentions of the Government in this regard. It had been rumoured, on the one hand, that the session would be opened early in March in order that Mr Coates might be free to leave for London before the end of May. and, on the other.- that in the event of the Conference being held Sir Francis Bell would attend as the representative of New Zealand and so enable Mr Coates to give his individual attention to the affairs of the Dominion at this end. But the Prime Minister has made it fairly obvious that he has no intention of assigning his Imperial obligations to other bands and that he will be in London himself if the Conference is summoned. This, of course, is as it should be, close personal relations between the administrative authorities here and in the Home Country being highly desirable; but at the moment it looks as if Mr Coates would have some difficulty in finding a locum tenons that could adequately fill his capacious shoes. Were the Hon. Downie Stewart in robust health the position would be different, but things being as they are. the problem would not he easy of solution. However, there may he no Imperial Conference this year. IMMIGRATION.

At the meeting of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union yesterday a good deal of time was occupied in the discussion of the question of immigration in its relation to production and wages, a majority of the members of the executive appeared to be in favor of encouraging immigration in every possible way. even to the length of paying the full passage of the new-comers from the Old Country and giving them free transit on the railways, presumably for a limited time. A delegate from Auckland pointed out that a few pounds to the immigrant meant a good deal in the way of expenditure, while to New Zealand the sum meant a mere drop in the bucket which the taxpayer never would feel. Another delegate thought that provision should he made for more than two children. No matter how large the families might be, he declared. they should he welcomed and assisted. A third delegate urged that the great point was to induce people to come to the Dominion that they might assist in bearing its financial burdens. Mr J. 11. .1011, of Hawke’s Bay and Mr W. 15. Matheson. of Wairarapa, protested strongly against the indiscriminate importation of immigrants at any price, shewing that unsuitable immigrants were a burden and not a help to the country, hut the view of the majority of the delegates appeared to be more workers at any price. WHEAT AND FLOUR.

Consumers here arc regarding with continued suspicion the request of the deputation which waited upon the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture yesterday to ask that wheat he admitted to the Dominion free of duty while the dutvof C 3 a ton on flour be maintained. The deputation consisted of flour-millers, mas-ter-bakers. dairy farmers and poultry keepers and between them they appear to have made out a strong ease for a review of the position. The proceedings were not open to the representatives of the Press and the paragraph supplied to the newspapers affords little information; but in a letter addressed to the Dominion Executive of the Farmers’ Union. Mr F. .T. Carson, the president of the New Zealand Flourmillers’ Association, sets out many reasons why the request of the deputation should be granted. The arrangement. so this authority says, would mean that the prices of wheat, according to variety, would range from 7s 2d per bushel to 7s (id nor bushel ; that the price of Hour would be raised by £2 10s per ton and that the price of the four-pound loaf would he advanced by one penny. It is the advance in the price of bread that is exercising the great majority of the critics and they are protesting strongly that if wheat growing is to he subsidised hv the State in order to keep the industry alive the money should come from the Consolidated Fund, towards which the whole community subscribes. and not be raised by a tax chiefly upon the pooler classes lo whom bread still remains tbo staff of life.

PERILS OF THE RACECOURSE. There are fiords of commendation here for Air F. T\. Hunt, the Stipendiary Magistrate at Auckland, who. at the opening of the inquest yesterday into the death of the jockey Preston at Takapnna announced his intention “ to have the whole matter thoroughly investigated ”. There is no suggestion that the Tiikapuna racecourse offers more perils titan does the average racecourse throughout the Dominion; hut there is a growing feeling, as strong among sporting folk as among uninitiated people, that far too many accidents have been happening on racecourses during the last year or two. Whether the death roll to-day is larger proportionately than it was ten or twenty years ago is a question on which the experts differ, and no precise .statements are available, but it is argued in many quarters that the increased pace at which races are run and the decadence in the art of horsemanship, which appears to he pretty generally admitted, have added largely to the perils of the sport, and that those perils have not been modified to an.v material extent by the provision of medical attendance and ambulance equipment. There is a very wide field for investigation in these respects and the Auckland magistrate is the man to explore it with discretion and understanding.