WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 95, 20 April 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

LICENSING. WAGES AND PROFIT. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, April 17. Some little stir was occasioned hero last week by the Prime Minister'? statement to a deputation from the. War Necessities Committee to the effect that the existng law did not give the Government sufficient control over the licensed houses. Mr. Massey has always had an open mind, as he would put it himself, on the liquor question, and it was hoped by some people and feared by others that he had come to regard State control as the most promising solution of an extremely perplexing problem. But now hf is busy assuring the reporters that his words to th e deputation were intended to boar no such interpretation. "I was not thinking of the Licensing Act when I spoke," h e said, "but of the War Regulations Act, which ought to give the Government full authority to deal with the public houses as it thinks best.'' He is not prepared just' now to indicate the nature of the amendments to the law ho' has in mind, nor, indeed, to commit himself to proposing any amendment at all. Probably lie has realised on second thoughts that to touch the licensing question in any shape or form during the approaching session would be to invite the very flood of talk he and his colleagues ire anxious to avoid. The idea of State control is not popular with either tho prohibitionists or the publicans, one party looking upon it as an attempt to perpetuate a great national evil, and the other as a covert attack on a perfectly legitimate business, but there can be no logical or democratic objection to adding the issue to the ballot paper, and if the Government does not move in this direction it is quite possible* some private member may test the .feeling of the House on the proposal.

THE PEG FOR REFORM. It is unfortunate for the country and a little unfair to the solders that the good people who are advocating thu early closng of the hotels make their concern for the men in training at Trentham the chief, if not the only excuse, for their activity. There has been such a vast improvement in the conduct of the men coming to town since th e "horrid examples" provided by one or two of the earlier reinforcements that the need for reform is much less urgent than it was seven or eight months ago. A dozen men overstaying their leave and having what they are pleased to call "a good time"

may giv e the main stneet of the city the appearance of being thronged by more or less "merry" soldiers, but as a matter of fact the cases of drunkenness among the men, except on rare occasions, are few and far between, and no longer call for drastic regulations. The question of closing the licensed houses at 7 o'clock or at some other early hour is, however, another story, and might well be discussed at a convenient season without any special reference to military matters. Whether there would be less indulgence among soldiers and civilians alike if the houses were closed at 7 o'clock is still debatable, but it is significant that on Sunday nights, when there are' many people in the streets, and the hotel's.: of course, are closed, there is scarcely a case of drunkenness to be found in Wellington, which is net more famed for self-restraint in this respect than is any other seaport in the Dominion. But the reform will hav 0 to be discussed here, as it must be elsewhere, on general principles, and in the meantime there is no justification for the assumption that a large proportion of th c men at Trentham are gi-en to riotous living and to making themselves public nuisances whenever they get. an opportunity. The Minister for Defence and th e military authorities, as already said, have effected a very great improvement in this direction, and the fact ought to b e recogised in places where it is not so well known as it is in this city.

COST OF LIVING. The members of the Board of Trade have returned from their trip to the South Island with a considerabi'e store of information, they say, but without any inclination to take the public into their confidence at the present stage. Of course,, they offer no opinion of the Act under which they were appointed or of the machinery by which it is administered, but it is becoming more and more obvious that the delay ii setting up the Board has very materially restricted its operations for thc present year. Had it been put to work by the middle of December, as it 'easily might have been, it could have dealt with the breadstuffs question and perhaps with the retail meat and butter question, but coming into existence when it did, practical}- three months, later, it found its way barred by committments and contracts which could be neither ignored or overcome. The result is that th e Board must settle

down during the next seven or eight months to the collecting of statistics and general' information in the hope of being able to do something to lessen the burden of the consumers later on. Mr. Massey, whose sympathy with the wage-earners is doubtless as sincere as that of any other politician, seems scarcely to grasp the urgency of the problem. The Arbitration Court has recognised by its riecent award in the general labourer' dispute than an advance of" 10 per cent, on the workers' wages no more than covers the advance in the cost of living, even if it does as much, and yet the Government hesitates to follow this very excellent lead. Mr,. Massey and Mr. Hemes declare they have the utmost sympathy with the railwaymen \s demands, for instance, and will consult the Minister for Finance about the feasibility of meeting them, but no one really believes that Sir Joseph "Ward, with his own record behind him and a surplus of a million or, so before him, is responsible for the delay in giving practical expression to his colleagues' good wishes. If the Government has any doubt about the facts accepted by the Arbitration Court, it should not lose a moment in having them reviewed by the Board of Trade.

EARNINGS AND EXPENDITURE. Mr. T. M. Wilford emphasised this point when addressing the Petone branch' of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants last week. Of course, his remarks had particular application to the railwa.ymen 's demands for increased pay, but they were not without interest to workers and employers all over the country. The member for Hntt reminded the men that,, like the rest of the community, they Avould have to make sacrifices in war time. The end would be worth the price, however big the price might be, but the cost should not all fall on t-he workers. He' urged the Government in return for the fine work the railway employees had done during the war. period and were still doing, and in recognition of the other sacrifices they had made and were making, should give them a substantial rise in wages to enable them to live with the same material comfort as they .had enjoyed before the war. It would be idle, and untrue to say the Government could not do this without inflicting injustice upon some other section of the community. There were, wealthy men in the Dominion making huge profits out of the war, and as a great part of these profits was earned by the workers a fair and reasonable share of them should go to the men and women who were bearing in an especial sense the cost of maintaining the integrity of the Empire and the blessings and privileges of civilisation. The Mother Country had shown the Dominions a very fine example in this respect by taking over railways, factories, and other national assets that were required for the purposes of the war, and New Zealand shouM not lag behind the other outlying portions of the Empire in following this example.