WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 May 1930, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

WOMEN VAGRANTS

“MOST FEARFUL THING.”

(Special Correspondent.) \VELLINGTON, May 6. The “most -./fearful- thing” in the

shape •of Women vagrants; reported from Auckland, has. done little more here than move an occasional visitor to the “Queen.'City” to reiterate “I told you so.” .Wellington, considering that it \ t is, like Auckland, a busy seaport, has managed uncommonly well to keep its principal thoroughfares frees from the riff-raff of society, and a hurried‘investigation of its by-ways this week has lievealed nothing approaching the deplorable state of affairs reporte dfrom the north. It is a fact, however, that the number of women in Wellington, who are not ashamed to enter the: “private bar” or any other secluded ap~ ment in a quiet hotel for the purpose of obtaining supplies for the future or for immediate consumption, is-gradual-ly increasing. So far there h'av£ been few flagrant improprieties a,sso6iatqd with the practice, and ardenfc;snamp-' ions of “women’s • rights” are -’asking why there should be any distinction between. the sexes. Auckland, njAi|h|yhile, ■ has suggested a'’reasdh.vA';?i'l;''./' :^% - ' ; 'W' THE VACANT Wellington refuses definitely to agitate itself over-theV Parnell-by-election It probably realises that whatever the result of the ‘ contest the successful candidate will - be a minority member and that neither the Government nor the official Opposition will be disturbed by his appearance in the House. Viewed from a distance it looks as if Mr Donald, the United candidate, and Mr Endean, the Reform candidate, would havea close tussle in which Mr. Bloodworth, the Labour candidate, would profit materially by a close division between themm. At the general election of eighteen months ago Mr Jenkins, .then. the United candidate, polled 5,642 ‘ votes,. .'Mir Dickson, the Re- -. form candidate, 4,,798 votes, and, Mr Yarnail, the, Labour, candidate,- 1,661 votes. There was 1,894 electors on the roll who did not vote, an unusually , large number, and it would be‘ quite for the delinquents to change the 'appearance of the poll to-morrow one way or the other by doing their duty. '7' 'UNEMPLOYMENT.' '

One of the reproaches being levelled at. the Government at the present time —perhaps very appropriately on the eve of a, by-ejection—it is to the effect that it has . adopted the recommendation of the,.Unemployment Committee set up bv the, late Reform .Government, and is preparing a Bill providing for a sustenance levy to, which every worker over eighteen years, of age will be required to contribute. The report is a very admirable one, .the work df; a particularly capable" committee,, of jvbich Mr W, D, Hunt was chairman, and n'ow is available for and everyone to read. It-is true that it contains a sustenance one which would press harshly upon no one; but the report itself has not yet been discussed by Cabinet and consequently bannot ha'vd; been put into, shape as a Bill. ' The Chances qre, however, that this will be its fate, shorn of the. sustenance clause, during the approaching sesion of Parliament. MUNICIPAL TRADING. Now that both the Wellington municipality and the Dunedin Municipality are obtaining big profits from their trading concerns, private traders are heginning to ask afresh why these concerns are exempt from the various taxes imposed upon'individuals and companies. The Duendin profits last year were in the neighbourhood of £35,00° and the Wellington profits reached some £19,000. In war tim^private individuals would . have been required to return to 'the State :p|acticap§;. one half of these' substantial profits*;- and even how,' that:;- they! might ing the same - ers, the municipalities should b|: returning practically one-fourth ofetheir earnings. In Wellington, for ipM ancr while the Wellington jGasy Company pays all the rates and taxes that arc going, the Wellington municipal trad mg concerns escape all these charges. The absolute injustice of this arrangement is so flagrant that one wonder why successive governments, advocat ing “equality of sacrifice,” Have allow ed this inequality to last so long, ir spite'of interated and reiterated pro tests.