WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

parliament back to work. I . BIG PROBLEMS AWAITING SOLUTION. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, April 8. Bigger problems than those involved in the “Salary Cut,” which occupied the- Government, in one way or another, for the best part of a month, are confronting Mr Forbes and his colleagues in Parliament to-day. Cutting ten per cent, of the salaries of the Civil Servants in order that the Prime Minister may be saved some l £1,300,000 or £1,400,000, though it occupied a long time, owing to the preversity of the Labour members, was a much less intricate proceeding than the passage of the Hawkes Bay Earthquake Bill, the Second Finance Bill, and other necessary measures of the kind, are likely to be. It seems indeed, that if Labour persists in believing that a perpetual parliament would be good for the political soul of the Dominion, Mr Forbes’s “abort session” will link up with the ordinary session due in June, Mr H. E. Holland and his colleagues would regard this development, no doubt } as the very zenith of popular representation. CHEESE INDUSTRY. Both the daily newspapers here return to emphasize the importance of immediate attention being given by itho authorities to th«s deterioration of New Zealand cheese on the London market and elsewhere. “It is Mtle use,” says the “Dominion, 1 ’ in the course, of an .editorial,. “one side blaming the other for what has happened. The ithing to do is to realise the f fl ct. that the industry is in danger, and ~that it is quite time that some definite • and practical steps were taken to place matters on a better footing.” The “Post” emphasises its plaint of a day or two ago. “The industry,” it reiteratefi, “is one of national importance, and. yet it is no exaggeration to describe it as retrograde and fast falling into disfavour with the only free and open market to which it can be exported.”- There is, of course, no adequate retor.t to these indictments', save in an effective answer to the judgment of .the Homq critics. LABOUR AND PRESENTATION. It seems to have been, in a some- ... what hesitating mood that the Labour Party retained proportional representation upon its electoral platform at pits -annual congress the other day. $ The. truth of the matter is that, with one °r two exceptions.—among whom Mr James McCombs, the member for Lyttelton, is a distinguished figure—the Labour members of the present House of Representatives realise that .the : first past the post system milts them and their party much better than would the proportional representation svstem. In three of the four big. cities at the last general election Labour secured far more thanits fair share of seats in the House and it will continue to do so in tlmse constituencies so long as the present system of election maintained. It will "he noticed . that when addressing the Labour Congress the otW dav Mr Holland did not Head for electors! reform, W for money and. more money in order that the opportunity of his party m ;rrl,t Fe. strengthened.. : FUSIONThou"h . the (iuestion of “Fusion”, is not, being so closely discussed in the lobbies and elsewhere ns. it w.a« at the open vug of the “Short Session.” four weeks ago, it still is the subject of occasional mention. Labour it tumin<r if to such nc-outit as it. can bv hintiu" at, a conspiracy between the United and Reform parties *o prolong the life of the present Parliament by two additional years and so deprive Mr H. E. Holland and his colleagues of the goal they,are imagining to be within their reach. But as a matter of fact neither the Prime Minister no r the leader of the Opposition is being kept awake by such dreams just now." If the truth‘were frankly disclosed it probably would be discovered that personally Mr H, E. Holland is much more concerned about the Premiership'than is either Mr Forbes or Mr Coates.. This has been suggested before and to observers will lose nothing by iteration.