WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1929, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

APART FROM PARTY POLITICS

A POPULAR FIGURE.

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, June (»

Now that the Labour Party at, Home is well on its way to the occupancy of tlie Treasury Benches in the House ol Commons, Wellington seems sear.my so sure as it was at the beginning oi tho week that it wants to see Mr Barnsay MacDonald and his colleagues given another chance in the direction of the affairs of the Empire. His spotting attitude throughout the election campaign and his prompt acceptance of tlie verdict of the constituencies have raised Mr Baldwin many points in the estimation of the crowd and at the moment lie comes near to being the most popular figure in the political field. Mr MacDonald, like Mr Lloyd George, has appeared too frequently upon the screen at the “ movies ’ to escape the dull edge of familiarity. The retiring Prime Minister, on the other hand, with his coni* paniouahlc pipe, his homely attire and his frank smile has not outworn his personal popularity, and to-day is in greater favour than ever Before. Q U IvENSLANID’S REPENTANCE. This week’s mail has brought the substance of a statement made Mr A. •H, Moore, the new Queensland Premier, which suggests tiiat the Norther State is losing no time in putting i s House in order after fourteen years of Labour occupation. “We are getting rid of the State enterprises inime- - iately,’’ Mr Moore told an interviewer. “Butchers’ shops and State meat shops, fish shops, and the State produce agency will cease to function at om-e. Tho railway refreshment rooms will be handed over to the Railway Department and the profit from these undertakings will go to the railways, to which they rightly belong, instead of into the general revenue.” The Liibonr Government, it seems, wrote off £48,000 ill respect to the fish shops and £89,030 in respect to the cannery, and yet gave employment to not a single additional man. State cattle stations had been established to supply the State butchers’ shops and every pound of meat sold cost the general taxpayer fourpeneo. SOUTH ISLAND TRUNK. Judging from .the statements made by tlie Prime Minister in Auckland the Government is fully committed to the completion of the South Island Trunk .Railway. The deputation from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce that waited, upon Sir Joseph Ward in the northern city yesterday with a request that aii. assurance should he given “that the Government had fully investigated the Parnassus-Wharanui proposal before coming to its decision” appears to have received hut short shrift from the Minister. Sir Joseph believed that the Government had taken every precaution in making its decision. The solution of No" Zealand’s railway problems, he insksted, was to be found in long-distance traffic. He has reiterated this assertion so frequently that it has begun to make an impression upon sonic of his critics and the local papers, while still insisting upon the closest gotion are conceding the advantages of a through line of rails provided it did not cost more than the country could afford. That’s the rub. THE EM DEN. Wellington must have been a little shocked when it read in its paper this morning that the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association had decided to take no part in any public of civic reception to tlie crew of the German warship Eniden during iks visit to New Zealand and that the president of the association had emphasised this decision by saying “they are coming and going so far as wo are concerned.” That this is not the view and the attitude of the great mass of the people of the. capital city of the Dominion may be judged from tlie street criticism of the association’s lapse from the traditions of tlie British race. Perhaps tho German authorities were a little thoughtless in sending to these waters a vessel bearing the name of a craft that had made itself notorious during the war. But even so Britons as a people do not harbour resentment towards a vanquished foe. One must hope that the association will repent of its hastv decision.