WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1931, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

REPORT EXPECTED FORTNIGHT HENCE. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, September 3. It is expected that by the end of next week the Inter-Party Economic Committee will have concluded its taking oi evidence and that at the end of the following week it will be ready with its report. -Meanwhile there is a good deal of speculation as to the attitude of the representatives of the four parties— United, Reform, Labour and Independent—towards the -report and its bearing. It would be too much to expect there will be unanimity between thesi parties, Labour having declared at the outset of the proceedings that it would have nothing to do with any arrangement which interfered with the sanctity of triennial parliaments. It would be •quite competent, of course, for the three other parties, w’it-h the war precedent at ‘their hand, to prolong the life of Parliament for a year or any shorter period ; but it might be a somewhat hazardous proceeding unless it were supported by a Very considerable measure of public opinion, PARTY OR COUNTRY.

In political circles just now a good deal is being said about party and country, most of the speakers, of course, declaring their devotion rather to country than to party. In this respect, the Prime Minister, who probably never has been heard using the term either from h : s seat in Parliament or from -the platform, is a striking example. Probably it is his continued representation of a rural constituency which has taken him for granted over a long series of years that has left him without any noisy enthusiasm. While the Leader of the Opposition spends the.year round, as he is fully justified in doing, in looking after the interests of his party throughout the constituencies the present head of the Government delegates services of this kind to his colleagues in their spare time and goes about his business as if there never again were to be an election contest in which he would be seriously concerned. SPORT OF RACING. It is understood that a deputation will wait upon the Prime Minister shoytly with a request that the Government will make certain concessions to the racing clubs throughout the Dominion in order that they may continue to provide legitimate sport for the pliblic and a substantial measure of revenue for the Treasury. If the Prime Minister and h's colleagues are agreeable a number of additional privileges will be extended to the clubs, such as the transmission of totalisator investments by telegraph, the reduction of taxation, the removal of race meetings from one centre to another and so forth. Racing clubs, like other institutions, are feeling the pinch of the slump, but perhaps the best service the Government could render them would be to enforce the law which provides fines and even imprisonment for the punters who persist in dealing with these gentry. This step has been far too long delayed and should no longer remain as a reproach to the clubs and the police. AN ASPIRING PARTY. The Leader of the Opposition is by no means perturbed by the announcement this morning that the Country Party has found an aspiring candidate ready to contest the Kaipara seat with its present popular occupant. Mr Coates has carried this seat about in his pocket for twenty years, only three years fewer than the Prime Minister’s custody of ■Hurunui. In 1911, thanks to the operation of Sir Joseph Ward’s second ballot, he defeated the isftting member by 572 votes, Mr J. 'Stallworthy, the father of the present Minister of Health, being his victim. Since then he has had no difficulty in holding the seat. In 1911 he polled a majority of 1118 and treated himself to an excursion to the Great War, where he did excellent service. At the election of 1919 his majority ran into 3,291 votes, Ids opponent reaching only thrqe figures. In 1922 he had a margin of 2,461 votes ; in 1925 a margin of 4,835, and in 1928 ' a margin of 2,475. Now he is to meet a courageous opponent indeed.