WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 October 1930, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

GAMING AMENDMENT BILL. TALKED OUT. (Special Correspondent A WELLINGTON, September 29. The Gaming Amendment Bill, which came up for its second . reading in the House of Representatives last week, under the sponsorship of Mr K. S. Williams, the member for Bay of Plenty, a worthy successor to Sir George H unter, was talked out with an -emphasis which was not encouraging for its reappearance this session. The fact ol the matter is that a very large section of the public is satisfied that there is quite enough gambling in the country at the present time and that any addition to its volume would neither improve the sport nor lessen its attendant evils. Recent happenings have shown that the use of the telegraph offices as a means of transmitting money to the totalisator is in no way desirable. Mr Williams in moving the second reading of the Bill said he had been told this was not the case; hut apparently he did not pledge himself to the assertion 111 addition to being a good sportsman the member for Bay of Plenty is a punctilious speaker.

UNEMPLOYMENT BILL. The threat from the Legislative Council that the Unemployment Bill would be held up, if not actually rejected, by His Majesty’s “Lords” proved to be. a much more 4 flimsy boast than it appeared to be at first sight. Of course the extreme Oppositionists, the “agin the Government” diehards, whom Sir Francis Bell, in similar circumstances, would have silenced by a wave of his hand, made some fuss about the measure, but never for a moment did they threaten its passage. Now the Government’s business is to put the law into operation and to see that it is made effective from the very beginning of its operation. This will involve the employment of a considerable number of officials and it is to be hoped they will be selected from the highest class available. The success of the experiment depends very largely upon the quality of the officers employed. The new Department must not be made an asylum for superannua-* tetl public servants or inefficient clerks.. • DEFENCE. •;> The “Dominion” this morning in the course of an editorial note, takes Mr Forbes and Mr Scullin. to task in the' mildest manner possible, for neglecting to make adequate provision for the protection of their respective countries. “Mr Forbes and Mr Scullin, wliO Are responsible for reducing land defence in New Zealand and Australia to something approaching a farce,” it says “will have an opportunity of seeing while in England that the British Labour Government does not hold so lightly the responsibility of national defence.” There is no need for either Mr Forbes nor Mr Scullin to take umbrage at the “Dominion” . allusion to their parsimony in the matter of equipment, and no doubt they both will be impressed by the displays to be shown them at Aldershot by the War Office, at Portland by the Admiralty and at Croydon by the Air Force. They both will find solace in the reflection that these fragment of the Empire are ready to give of their best to the Mother Land. THE ACTING PRIME MINISTER. The Hon. E. A. Ransom in taking over from his leader the responsib lities attached to an Acting Prime Minister assumed a vast amount of labour and worry. That lie is bearing his heavy burden with tact and ability is admitted by ail unprejudiced observers and it is safe to say that when the Hon. G. W. Forbes returns to the Dominion he will find his trust has been faithfully and zealouily guarded. It may be said for the members of the Opposition, as a whole, that they have observed the conditions of the party truce during the Prime Minister’s absence very creditably. Viewing the three parties in the House during the absence of its leader, one is disposed to wonder—why politicians cannot make permanent the harmony which prevails when petty squabbles and bitter personal attacks are banished from the Chamber. It is only the members of a small company that habitually interfere with the steady progress of public business, and it should be for the electors to determine whether or not these offenders are worthy of the distinction they have received.