WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE WAKEFIELDS. TARDY RECOGNITION.. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 23. At the annual gathering of the Wellington Early , Settlers’ Association held yesterday to celebrate the ninetieth anniversay of the founding of the province of Wellington,; His Excellency the Governor with his tactful intensity made an eloquent appeal for an appropriate' memorial to the work of the Wakefield family in promoting the early settlement of tbe present Dominion. A year or two ago, he reminded his audience, there bad been a movement in that direction, but it seemed to have dropped out of mind, and he wondered if the ninetieth celebration elf so important an event might not revive an undertaking in which the whole community was interested and concerned. With all the memorials which had been erected to men in later days ,in the Dominion, his Excellency emphasized, nothing adequate had had been done to perpetuate the memory of the great pioneer to whom New Zealand owed so much Mr E. G. Pilcher, the president of the Settlers-’ -Association, had struck the note Sir Charles Ferguson resounded and it is to be honed that’ ’between them they will awaken Wellington and the oth< provinces to- their fluty.

■ PUMICE AND RAILWAY. Mr R. A. Wright, the member for Wellington Suburbs, who will be better remembered by folk outside the Wellng province as the Minister of Education in the later days of the Coates Government, returned yesterday from the/ Rotorua-Taupo district, wherein company with other members of Parliament he had been seeking inspiration concerning the pumice land and the abandoned Rotorua-Taupo railway. In the course of an interview this morning he did not grow enthusiastic in regard to either the pumice land o-r the railway. The best he could say of the pumice land was that it “seemed to have possibilities,’ 7 but meanwhile required large quantities of fertilisers and nitrogen. Still he and his companions “were favourably impressed by its prospects for the future.” As for the railway, ,focal opinion appears to have divided, the returned soldiers being emphatically against the construction of 'the .tine and many other settlers being wholly indifferent about the work. Mr Wright’s own opinion is that it would be utterly futile to place inexperienced men upon pumice land and leave them there to shift for themselv-

FUSION UNDESIRABLE. : V-' Mr W. J. Poison, the Independent member for Stratford, gives it as his opinion that a fusion of the United and the Reform parties in the House of Representatives would be “artificial and therefore undesirable.” The majority of, people here who have made themselves acquainted with the whole political situation are of the same opinion To begin with, they argue, a party that had held office for sixteen or seventeen years and had worn out its welcome could scarcely claim equal status with a young party fresh from the constituencies with a third party at its back. Then Sir Joseph Ward had demonstrated to the country at large that the old assumption that there is no real dif ference between the present Government and the present Official Oposition is a. complete delusion. Mr Poison recognising these facts, suggests to the two larger parties that they should set aside their mere party differences and co-operate in an effort to make the very best of the conditions that exist. It is a most admirable conception, but as yet beyond the understanding of the average politician.

BANK HOLIDAYS,

A long suffering public raises no objection to the generous holidays enjoyed by members of the legal profession at Christmas time and Easter time. It is different with the bankers. Both at Christmas time and Easter time there are complaints from business men and even from private individuals of hanking facilities denied them at these seasons of the year. This morning the “Dominion” takes up the griev ances of the sufferers. “It is not,” it says, “that the bankers are grudged a day or two off, but that the temporary withdrawal of their service inconveniences a large class of traders. The position is aggravated this year by the late fall of Easter, so that it happens the banks will be closed on six consec utive days,” Good Friday (April 18) to St. George’s Day (April 23) and will reopen on the Thursday, only to close again on Friday, Anzac Day. Surely banking holidays are not as laws of the Medes and Persians.” “If only some arrangement were made for depositing purposes the public would have less occasion for complaint than it has at present.