WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

HALF THE LOAF. URBAN SUMMER. TiME. (Special to “Guardian”.) WELLINGTON, August 30. Though Mr Sidey’s Local Summer Time Bill was given its second reading in the House of Representatives last night and referred to a select committee that may he expected to look favourably upon most of its provisions, its appearance on tho Statute Book this session is by no means assured. The Railway Department and the Post and Telegraph Department still have to he consulted on tho matter and they both may raise difficulties in regard to the half loaf which may seriously jeopardize its further progress. That the Summer Time Act of last year was not ro-enacted this year was largely due to the assumption of many of its supporters that its passage was inevitable. These people now arc taking only a languid interest in the local Bill, fearing that it would tend rather to obstruct than to help the permanent reinstatement of the measure they allowed to slip from their hands earlier in the session. It also is well known that in many of the urban districts there are big interests more strongly opposed to “daylight saving” than are the great majority of tho farmers.

LAW MAKING. Among the many Bills that remain to be presented to Parliament during the present session is the Auctioneers’ Act 1928, which contains many curious clauses for the delectation of the casual reader. There is one that will particularly interest the purveyors of fish, fruit, and vegetables. “At any auction sale of fish, shell fish, fruit, or vegetables,” it runs, “ every lot shall be sold to the highest bidder, and it shall not be lawful for any auctioneer to refuse to accept a bid from any person present at the sale who is willing, or who states that he is willing, to pay cash for the,goods on the fall of the hammer, and any condition or stipulation in conditions of. sale in any manner violating this clause shall be void and of no effect.” Among the curious things about this clause is that it has stood on the Statute Book for many' years without' any record of a buyer getting away with prime apples at a penny a case or fresh fish at sixpence the hundredweight. FOR THE PRIME MINISTER.

In these days the Prime Minister receives fewer bouquets from his independent critics than are his due, and this fact lends additional grace to an appreciation by the “ Post ” of his bearing towards the Industrial Conference. “If members will maintain the high tone taken by the Prime Minister in his statement,” the evening journal states, “ they will avoid the risk of setting the parties at loggerheads. Mr Coates’s summary of the difficulties and the issues before the conference was judicial and fair to all concerned. In it there was no phrase or word which would be regarded as provocative. It is not asking too much of the other speakers to urge that they also should endeavour to avoid bias, and, as far as possible, unreasonable partisanship. Of course members will take sides. That is only to be expected; but they can do so with a due allowance for the opposite point of view.” The compliment was so well deserved that it will hear iteration. Whatever his other disabilities may bo, Mr Coates at least knows how to play the game.

A REPENTANT KNIGIJT. Mr l’etor Fraser is not the most arresting speaker on the Labour Pouches in the House of Representatives, hut following upon an appeal from Sir John Luke for higher wages for members of the Civil Service he excelled himself. I Hailing Sir John as a Daniel conic to judgment and welcoming him to the stool of repentance, he expressed a hope that the member for Wellington Suburbs —the Hon. Ji. A. Wright, the Minister of Education —-would he the next to express repentance and to join with Sir John in confessing they had done wrong with other members of the Reform Party in 1921-22 when without any justification they had reduced the wages and standard of living of the Public Servants and other people in the Dominion. Finally the member for Wellington Central, amidst much laughter, urged Sir John to move that in the opinion of the House the salaries of the public servants generally should be restored at least to the minimum of IG2O. He would he ready in the circumstances to act as teller with the worthy knight.