WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 150, 28 June 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

PUSHING business: MINISTERIAL, TRIP HOME. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, June 26. Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s assurance that he and Sir Joseph Ward are in no 'hurry to get Home, there are plenty of indications that 1 they are anxious to bring the session to a close as speedily as possible, or at any Irate as speedily as the needs of the country will permit. The first definite sign of haste came a week or so ago with the motion for giving Government business precedence for the remainder of the session;, and now Mr. Massey has announced that after to-day the Monday holiday will disappear. Tomorrow the Income-tax Bill and the Finance Bill, the measures necessary to gijv’c effect to the financial ' proposals contained in the Budget, will be brought down by Governor’s message, and the debate on the second reading of one or the other of thorn will be taken forthwith. Bills of the magnitude and importance of these measures cannot be rushed through in a single sitting, particularly when many members have not relieved themselves of the speeches they had prepared for the Budget debate, and Sir Joseph Ward, recognising this fact, has promised that ample time will be allowed for their discussion. It is not improbable, however, that there will bo some difference- of opinion as to what constitutes ample time and what may bo regarded as reasonable hours of sitting. MUNITIONS AND SUPPLIES. The'statement of the operations of 1 the Munitions and Supplies Department, published last week, will have given the country some idea of the immense amount of responsible and onerous work the Hon. A. M. Myers has taken off the shoulders of the* Minister of Defence. It also should help Mr. Allen’s critics in finding some excuse for the grievous blunders that wore made at Trentham and in the general; admin--istration of the Defence Department during the early days of the war. Burdened with the* affairs of the Finance 1 Department, the Education Department, and the Defence Department, at is little wonder that the Minister himself ’■onclcssly over-taxed end quite incapable' of dealing satisfactorily with all the strange and knotty pro bib ms crying out for solutions quickly and conclusively. But Mr. Myers’ admirable, work will have dond something more 'than remind the country of the outrageous demands it was making upon Mr. Allen a year ago. It .represents the results of applying the trained business mind with' n special bent towards method and order to a huge business undertaking. Mr. Myers., unlike- the average politician, is strangely ignorant of the prt of self-advertising, but he lies the knack of doing things Quietly and effectively without overlooking a singib detail that can make for success. There is no ihoraber of the Cabinet doing better work for the Do--5 mini on in Uio present crisis than he is s doing, ami yet the statement issued the other day was the first adequate intimation the public had of the fact. WAR PRICES. Members of the House who were disappointed by -lie allusions to the cost of living problem in the Budget have announced their intention to return to the subject when the Finance Bill is under discussion. Their answer to the 'Minister’s assertion that it “seems almost impossible” to deal with the problem “till th e war is over” is that New South Wales attacked it at the very beginning of the war and achieved a very considerable measure of success. When the Necessary Commodities Control Commission commenced its operations ■in 1014 it took 10 per cent, more to buy tine same quantity of food in New South Wales than it did in Victoria, but by the end of 1915 food and groceries were cheaper in Sydney than they Were in any other State capital in r the Commonwealth, with the exception of Brisbane. Brisbane’s happy position was mainly due to the fact that the Queensland Government had assumed control of the meat industry, so that th e exception really “proves the rule’’ that it is possible to regulate prices independently of the sacred law of supply and demand. Of course, prices have advanced during the war in New South Wall's, as they have advanced everywhere else, but while the rise in Sydney between 1913 and 19.15 was only 22.7 per cent., in Melbourne it• was 35.8, in Brisbane 31.0, and in Adelaide 30.7. If those figures, compiled by the Common-/ wealth Statistician, are correct/ they show that the “almost impossible ’’ has been actually achieved in the State that dared to face the problem. CENSUS AND REPRESENTATION. The determination of the Government to take the census—which in the ordinary course would have been taken last April—in October, instead of postponing it to that indefinite period “after the' war,’’ is generally approved, but already there are complaints of '■ certain economies the Minister of In- ■ tenml Affairs proposes to practice in the collection'of the figures. Number-

ing the people is a costly business, at normal times running into £60,000 or £70,000, aiTH it is easy to sympathise with Mr. Russell! in his very proper desire to save money; but it is pointed out that if the additional work is saddled on to the police and postal officials it cannot be so thoroughly done as its importance- demands. Mr. F. M. B. Fisher was severely rated for making a. somewhat similar arrangement •in connection .with the compilation of the electoral rolls a couple of years ago, and it is known that most of the defects in the National Register were due to the postal officials being unable to do alii that was required of them. The census will be a far bigger and more exacting undertaking than filling the rolls or completing the National Register, and so much depends upon its accuracy that no makeshift arrangement should be adopted by the Minister.