WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

TRANSPORT SERVICES

AN EQUITABLE BASIS.

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, June 13

At the inaugural meeting of the Transport Advisory Council held here yesterday the Hon. W. A. Veitch, who has had Transport added to his other three portfolios, made it quite plain in the course of a very admirable address that the Government had no intention of ousting either the motor car or the motor lorry from the road. “ I am quite .certain,” he said, after giving assurances to this effect, “that motor traffic will never supplant the Hailway Department}-, nor will the Hailway Department ever oust the motor service from the transport business. Nor is there any reason why either should do anything of the kind.” Mr Veitch evidently endorses the vietv of the Prime Minister that long distance transport must remain the business of the railways, while shorter distance feeders' will provide plenty of occupation for. the car and the lorry. In any case he pledges his word thqt the motor will' not be suppressed ip the interests of the Railway Department or any other department. SUNDAY TRAFFIC. Yesterday the Hon. W. B. Taverner, the new Minister of Railways, was assailed by a deputation, thirty stropg, with a protest against the running of excursion trains on Sundays. The Rev. J. R. Blanchard, a minister of the Presbyterian Church, was the chief spokesman and he discharged his commission uncommonly well. “Sunday,” he put it to the Minister, “ belongs not so much to the history of ecclesiastical institutions as to the history of religion itself. , The .principle if; ejmbodies is part of primitive’ religion, and is therefore grounded in:tpe pa{ipre of man. That,! principle | has beep adapted and elevatecL'djiy Christianity, and is consequently guarded by the Christian. Church as ,a sacred possession and inviolable trust of the huriian race.” Mr Blanchard Was followed bv other speakers in support of the orthodox Sabbath, but of .course there no advocate of the side .present, and the least Mr Taverner ‘ could 'do was to refer the petition to the Cub-, inet. There it is likely to have sympathy alone for the Church. TRUST AND TRUSTEE. A correspondent writing to the “Dominion” is fearful lest the Public Trustee shall become the dominant factor in determining the fate of this country. “The Public Trustee,” he says, quoting figures, “estimates the present value of the estates represented by wills no deposited with him, which wills, of course, all appoint the Public Trustee as executor, at £251,000,000. According to the latest „ statistics the total private wealth is estimated ,at £905,000,000. Thus the Public Trustee has potentially under his control more than one-third of the total private wealth and more than one-quarter of the total national wealth and morfe than one-quarter of the total national wealth of this country.” If this accumulating process goes on, the correspondent declares, the Public Trustee ultimately will control the majority of the existing companies, will own most of the land, will be the only person to invest and will have the -whole community at his feet. And the prediction seems logical enough. THE URBAN DRIFT. In the course of an address he delivered to the Wellington branch of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand last night, Dr A. G. B. Fisher, Professor of Economics at Otago .University, made light of the “ urban drift ” which has been occasioning the politicians and the economists of the Dominion so much uneasiness. A wider view of the situation, he said, suggested that so fnr from being deplorable • the drift.was inevitable, desirable and one of the most cheering proofs that economic progress had not yet ceased. So long as there was no world , food ■ shortage and farmers and farm labourers were not receiving excessive incomes there was no need, the professor declared, to he alarmed about the “urban drift.” On the contrary, its continuance was a most cheerful 9ign showing than the “Malthusian devil” was chained up and that the pressure of population growth upon food supplies was not yet a serious problem. And the country is spending thousands on ihe Massey college 1