WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1933, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

ODDS AND ENDS f ; (From oilir own Correspondent). WELLINGTON, June 12. It can no longed be doubted by obI servant people/ that the New Zealand ! Legion, thanks, largely to the inspir--1 ation and perseverance of the promoter Dr Campbell Begg, is niakng tangible progress. Whether in the main toward success or toward failure’ remains i to be seen. It is obvious, ’however, that the executive of the Legion. is going about its business with very considerable measures of courage, tact and persistence, without and personal impropriety; The main object of the Legion, so far ais' one can ascertain at the present time, is to review the whole legislative and administrative conditions of the Dominion and to see how they may be materially improved. That there is need for improvement in both aspects is generally admitted, and the Legion lias.laid itself out 1 frankly and fairly to ascertain where the faidts lit and ho tv* they may be overcome. So far it' has been guilty of no political impropriety. The demands of the Legion,' so far as can be gathered from its published letters and its platform speeches, are numerous and insistent. Tile Legion, as it introduces itself, is-not-a- ' how political party seeking to overwhelm Coalitionists and Oppositionists, but a badv hoping to bring together a'd thjyb is best in Uniteds, Reformers, Labourites and Independents into one happy family that will seek mainly for the welfare of the .whole. That, at any rate is the good towards which the members of the Legion are striving. And there is good sound logic in much of their aspiration. They would have the needs of the country established by the mass of the people. They would lessen the cost of Parliament and the cost of its by-ways and its high-ways, by associating service with efficiency, instead of with extravagance and waste. This is not merely a dream witli the promoters of the Legion, hut a sight they see awaiting—efficiency, thoroughness and national good-will. The \yay of this national reform has not yet been fully expounded by its proP’oters, but it is safe to say it is nob the product of any of the existing parties. The Coalition Government has satisfied itself that it is well on the way towards meeting all the needs of the Dominion and the Labour Opposition is sure it could improve uponthe policy and administration pf the present occupants of the Treasury . Ranches. Put the executive of the New Zealand Legion,, setting ancient ; hts~.

,toryj and ,fading traditions, aside, give's co.Gur to the tacts, of the day. It has; not; placed .•the whole of its policy; before a public still to be aroused;, but fragments ,of its hew evangel have got abroad and cannot fail to attract attention, ( Proposals to reduce the-mem-bers of- the,two Houses of Parliament by one half are already being discussed -with widespread attention.' V- ,•>

Tlie New Zealand Lpgiom s 0 it seems, is not confining its observations to the every day affairs of the. Dominion. It reaches out, according to the stories of the clubs and the street corners, to all the political happenings of, the day and’ preserves them for the developments of the future. It is 1 contemplating, so the gossips say, that the personnel of the House of Representatives is to be reduced, by thirty-five members, or even more, and the personnel of -the Legislative Council tr fifteen <>r even twelve. The system, so the- same authorities state, will involve the abolition 'of all the present electroral boundaritS-ihS the division of the whole 1 of the’-Donrlhion" into Provincial Districts, 'iso' - relieving the country of enormous • expendture Financiers who have, seen the outline of this scheme declare that the Dominion would be relieved of one-fourth of its public expenditure by its adoption. The figure is one that would have to be examined very closely before it was generally accepted, but there are local authorities who hold it in regard.