WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 78, 31 March 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MINISTERS AND MEMBERS.

MUNICIPAL ROBBERY,

(Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, March 29

The Prime Minister’s prediction that the approaching session of Parliament Trill be brief as well as icarly is safeguarded by the comment that its length will depend very largely upon the attitude of members. Mr. Massey’s assurance that no “political' matters” will be submitted to the House must be subject to the same qualification. Ministers enjoy certain well-defined privileges in regard to money measures and financial proposals which may -enable them to limit discussion in these particular directions, but they cannot prevent private members ranging over a very wide field of controversy and keeping Parliament sitting well-nigh a*s long as they please. That private members will* do so in any factious spirit there is no reason to suppose, but that they will be much more critical than they were last Session, when the National Cabinet was on its trial and the party truce a neve thing, may be taken for granted. Mr. Massey has Hunted more or less darkly at amendments to the Defence Act providing for compulsory service in case of necessity under some loss offensive name than conscription and It is oasr to imagine what a flood of talk woull follow upon a proposal of this kind. Probably a majority of rho House would not be opposed to conscription if it wore applied on a broad democratic basis and accompanied by adequate provision for soldiers and the’r dependents, but members on both sides would have a vast amount of say about a variety of cognate matters that are exercising their minds and interesting their constituents, and they feel under no obligation to eschew political or even party subjects on such an occasion. LAND SETTLEMENT. One subject about which Ministers will hear a good deal during the session, whether they like it or not, is land settlement. The cry of land for returned soldiers, though it may have oroduced no very tangible results so far as the soldiers themselves are «oucerned, has reminded the country of the potency of close settlement to alleviate many of the evils from which the

community is suffering. In an interview he gave to one of the local npapers the other day, the Hon. W. > S l . MacDonald, the Minister of Agriculture, while properly careful to avoid trespassing upon the special domain of his colleague, the Minister of Lands, said enough to indicate the direction in which his own mind was trending. Mr. MacDonald’s own agricultural experience has been mainly with broad acres and he has not concerned himself so much with the tenure question as with the need for profitable settlement; but he has watched the development of the new conditions brought about

by the progress of agricultural science and the rapid expansion of the world ’s markets, and, if the observation is

permissible in these times, it seems a pity that his wide practical knowledge and shrewd commousense are not as actively employed in the Lands Department as they are in the Agricultural Department. “Settlement, more settlement, and still more settlemnt ” is no longer a. mere party shittoleth. It is a vital necessity for the continued progress and prosperity of the Dominion under its increased burdens and its promotion ought to be entrusted to the Minister best able to give it prompt and effective expression. This, is the view many members of Parliament, regardless of colom’, are strenuously advocating. PUBLIC WORKS. The sympathetic reply Sir Joseph Ward gave the deputation that waited upon him in Christchurch to urge the speedy completion of the Otira Tunnel was only to be expected. Many’ years ago, long before he became head of the Government, the Minister for Finance was protesting against the great waste and loss involved in' keeping railway eonstructitn dragging on year after year instead of pushing it on to a paying point at the earliest possible moment. Probably ho never had an opportunity to give full effect to his ideas on this subject, which did not. by the way, agree with those of either his predecessor or his successor, in office; but in the policy ho sot forth on the eve of the last general election the completion of the Trunk lines within a given period was a prominent plank. He may claim, therefore, to have been perfectly consistent in his reply to the Christchurch deputation. But, apparently, the Minister for Pub-

lic Works is not quite of the same mind. He is committed to the'expenditure of the full votes on a dozen branch lines, but he sees difficulties in keeping up to time with the Otira tunnel, the connecting link between Hie East and West Coasts of the South Island. There are levels and alignments to be assured, headings and linings to be adjusted and explosives to be secured. Of course, all these matters are of consequence and must receive the careful attention of the responsible Minister, but, shorn of their technicalities, Mr. Fraser ’s excuses appear to mean that he Ims overrun the constable in other districts and is compelled to economise on a work which everyone acquainted with the facts now regards as one of national importance. THE COMPLACENT CITIZEN. The average Wellington citizen is notoriously the most patient and longsuffering person in the world and so far has scarcely noticed the raid of the Hospital Board upon the Children’s Ward which was his pride and joy only a few short years ago. Everyone else will recollect how the Ward came into existence, how the whole city joined in gathering subscriptions, and how Mrs. T. M. Wilford, ' generously

assisted by Mr Hugh Ward and Miss Grace Paiotta, of pleasant memory', gained a notable victory over municipal apathy and indifference. How the Board has need of further accommodation for its adult patients, and having persuaded itself that the children are too luxuriously housed has decided to divert a large slice of the public gift from its original purpose. Happily, at the eleventh hour, when only a notice to rescind the Board’s resolution bars the way, the local evening paper has come to the rescue of the children. "Such action,’’ the Post says in the course of a spirited article, "in conjunction with the scandalous neglect by the present Board’s predecessors, should give some of the people’s reprepresentatives a twinge whenever they read the words ‘Suffer little children to come unto Me.’ The attitude of the present Board is tantamount to this, ‘Build for little children and we shall grab part of the building for opthalmie adults.’ ’’ This is not very elegant, it may to some sensitive people appear even a little irreverent, but the methods of the raiders are neither elegant nor reverent and a less emphatic protest Avould have made no impression upon the

thick skins of the majority of the Board. If this majority is allowed to have its way Wellington will deserve all the hard things that are said of its local’ government.