WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

(Special Correspondent). t-rA LIVE OFFICER. RETORTS TO CRITICISM. ' WELLINGTON, October 17. Mrj.G. McNamara, the Secretary of the Post ancl Telegraph Department, is a very live .officer, who dees not allow his department to be . maligned with impunity. During the present session i of Parliament members of the House ; of Representatives, as well as outsiders, have been saying; a good deal ; about departmental extravagance ajnl superfluous employees. At a meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce; yesterday the- Secretary demonstrated to the members of that body, as lie. had done to many inquirers here, that tire Post and Telegraph Department, while extending its business on all sides , during the last five years, has reduced its staff from 12,400 to 11,505 : notwithstanding the fact that the service has been increased in a , much larger measure than the staff has been reduced. The Secretary did not hesitate to tell the business men of Auckland that if they could relieve the whole of .the, public service, from the superfluous interference by politi.ians the burdens of the taxpayers woUjd he sustantially lessened. PRIME MINISTER LOOKS ABOUT. The Hon. G. W. Forbes is not con-

fining his intention in London to the Imperial Conference, though he uppears' to have borne himself during the sitting of that august, assembly with becoming dignity. He lately has been inspecting the J ondon markets in which New Zealand is specially concerned. Apparently he also has been keeping his eyes open. “Speaking of the abnormal disparty of prices between New Zealand and Danish butter,” we are told, “he gave it as his opinion that the high prices of Danish was largely due to excellent salesmanship and organisation. He thought New Zealand should have a far more thorough .system t of snbsmanship in London.”, .This is whaP many reliable authorities have been saying for a long time past, and if the chairman cf, the Dairy Board is unable to stun-' ulate his colleagues into greater activity, .other means will have ,to be devised for placing the New Zealand product ;in its, Proper place, ‘ REVENUE SHRINKAGE. It was just a month, or two ago that the secretary of the , Dunedin City Council returned from a municipal conference in Australia “.with the proud boast that Dunedin'was the mo?t : presper.otis/municipality on either Side of the; Tasman Sea. Now lie has to. report a less satisfactory result for a half-year’s trading. “Returns for the city' tradiiig'departments for the halfyear ended. September 30th., ’’ he toeports “show a dec-tease of £21,000 cortipated'with thetorst half cf;l92o.’’ The'

electric department, it is only fait' to s ajv is-almost entirely responsible for the. shrinkage, the effects of the power shortage having been disastrous; But Dunedin, unlike Auckland, .Wellington, and'Christchurch, by the process of municipalizing practically all its services, and ..so escaping "the taxation borne by other centres, -cannot expect the- ratepayers of . the larger cities to, join in : its lamentations. The catastrophe indeed may awaken Parliament to the need for equality of sacrifice in such sad cases. POOR SPORT. The Mayor of Wellington, who is a good sportsman always, has set his face against a proposal for the use of the Town Hall as a place for present day wrestling matches. An application for the use of the hall has been made by the promoters of the “sport” anti it will he considered by the full Council at its next meeting; but judging from the attitude of a number of the councillors last night to the proposal it seems unlikely that the city’s meeting place will be tainted by the i display. The fact that the sport had been allowed to go on, the Mayor said, was no great credit to those concerned. “The game is getting too dirty,” a councillor averred, “and it will have to be cleaned up.’’These authorities repre-

sent very fairly the attitude of the mass of the public. It seems likely indeed that the kind of wrestling now in vogue will not survive much longer.