WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1927, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PH RAH HR AND DAIRY HOARD. AIR ( OAITS PROTESTS. .Special to 11 Guardian.”) WELLINGTON. April 12.

In the eifeu 111 stances the Prime Min-, islet' did well in taking a day or two to consider the propriety of replying to the attack upon him by the chairman ol the Dairy Hoard in the "official organ” of- that body. His first impulse must have been to handle Mr Grounds much more severely than he subsequently did. That gentleman had imputed to him ignorance of facts with which lie should have been acquainted, litas in listening to both sides of the controversy concerning the price-fixing lie found going on in Condon and \acillation in suggesting there might he a way. other than the hoard's way. of averting a grave catastrophe to the producers and the Dominion. "These facts,” Air Grounds wrote in the

" official organ.” after reciting his grievances against the Government's representative on the hoard’s London Agency, "were represented to Alt Coates in London, hut holding the same views and having accepted Mr Patei -on’s guidance wtihout any proper investigation, it. was readily lore, seen that he could not jettison his guide.” These words were stndiedlv offensive, as so many words published in the ."official organ” are, and the Minister would have been quite justified in ignoring their utterance.! THF, MIXIsTF.P.T REPLY.

However Mr Coates, like the good sportsman that lie is. alter duo (cnsidci'iitiiin has returned the soft answci that disarms the hasty critic. "1 he npiiioii <xptvssed ill the last sentencby Air Grounds.” be writes, "is wholly inaccurate. So far from ‘accepting-Mr Paterson’s guidance without any proper invest igal ion.' I arrived in London with a mind openly sympathetic with the hoard, and imbued with an earnest desire that the hoard’s operations should he in every way successful. I was in no way guided by Mr Paterson nor I)v the interests opposed to the board’s policy. If 1 bad been captured by those interests, my views might naturally he challenged. Hut what impressed me as to the seriousness of the position was universal and was by no means confined to those who might lie regarded as disgruntled speculators." The .Minister is not over-gen-eroils to Mr Paterson in this exposition of his views, but his own inquiries and observations fully justify the conclusions reached by the Government'; representative, who. when all is said and done, appears to have taken the sound commercial view ol the situatmii. PGM At FI! TIMM. It was announced here yesterday that ilit’ secretary of the Post Ofiico had received me-satrex that the legal time in Pelgium had been advanced for the summer season l>.v one hour at midnight 011 April Ptli-PM h : in t-pain I by one hour at 1! p.m. on Aprd 'oth : ] in Franco by one boor at II p.m. ■ 11 April Oth. and in Great Hrifain hv one hour at 2 a.m. on April lot!;. The announcement has reminded the local advocates of "daylight saving” in tills country that they must be up and doing if they are to o'otain any concession of the same kind during the approaching session of Parliament. Those farmers who are opposed to “ tampering with the clock, as one ot them put it the, other day. have been passing resolutions on the subject and forwarding them to the Government for several months past, and unless some interest is displayed on Hie oihei side Ministers may assume that the enthusiasm of the daylight savers has evaporated. As a matter ot tail among city employees the demand lor the reform is, more insistent to-day

“ tampering with the clock, as one ot them put it the, other day, have been passing resolutions on the subject and forwarding them to the Government for several months past, and unless some interest is displayed on Hie oihei side Ministers may assume that the enthusiasm of the daylight savors lias evaporated. As a matter ot Hot among city employees the demand lor the reform is. more insistent to-day than it ever lias been before, and there is little doubt that a well organised campaign in the rural districts would insure the Dominion following in the footsteps of the Mother Country in Hie regulation of the clock. |,A BOTH? TIM DM Plf ANT.

The success of the Labour Party at both the Victorian and the West Australian State elections is accepted Lithe Labour Party Imre as a forerunner of what will happen in New Zealand eighteen months lienee, .fust how the party is going to achieve tiiis revolution in the Dominion’s polities it is not vet troubling to explain. Its leaders for the present maintain a diplomatic silence on this point. The rank and file of the party, however, the orators and the statesmen that congregate on the waterfront, or watch the great

building operations going on in the city at the present time, are ready enough to discuss the good times tli.il

are coming. The Liberals are dead, they sav, the Nationalists arc drifting apart the Reformers are discredited and Labour alone, remains as a live partv with a policy and a “punch.” It is doubtful if these jubilant gentlemen share much of the confidence ot their leaders. There is no more astute campaigner in the present House ° Representatives than -Mr H. E-. Holland. and lie knows ns well as every other observant person does that the future of the Labour party rests with the progressives of all colours who one of these days will meet on common ground.