WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 28 August 1916, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE RE-ARRANGED CABINET. PARTIES AND PERSONS. (Special Correspondest). WELLINGTON. August 25. The temporary distribution of Mr Massey's and Sir Joseph Ward's portfolios among their colleagues, which is now definitely announced, will naturally lead to the assumption that the two party leaders have left the country, but this is a subject the newspapers are not permitted to mention, though it was hoped by many people that Mr MacDonald would be given charge of the Lands Department during the absence of the Prime Minister, and that the Labour portfolio would be entrusted to one of the Liberal Ministers. Mr Myers will have congenial work at the Treasury, where he made the most of his opportunities four years ago, and Dr McNab will keep the Post and Telegraph Department running smoothly with the assistance of some of the most capable executive officers to be found in the Public Service. Mr Allen’s appointment as Acting-Prime Minister is viewed with some trepidation even by his political friends, but happily there is no chance of Parliament being called together during the absence of the two party leaders, and in his purely administrative capacity the Minister of Defence is not likely to give offence to any of his colleagues.

I The Party Element. That the party sentiment, though very properly kept in subjection, has not altogether disappeared from the National Cabinet, is shown by the fact that Mr Allen and Sir Francis Bell have been appointed to look after the interests of the Eeform Party during the absence of Mr Massey, and Dr McNab and Mr Myers'' to watch the interests of the Liberal Party during the absence of Sir Joseph Ward. Of course, this is no new development, and no indication that the relations between the members of the Cabinet are less cordial now than they have been in the past; but it suggests that both parties are still keeping an eye on the future, and that the postponement of the next general election, till the end of 1918, has not, as many predicted it would, stop all their permissible actii vitics. It is being whispered abroad, by the way, that much of the support given to the postponement proposal was obtained by Ministers assuring their followers that if the war were at an end by the close of the year the legislation of last session would be repealed, and the election taken at the usual time., If this really was the ease it is a pity Ministers did not make more widely known what was in their minds. Cost of Living. Late accounts of what is happening in the Old Country and in the Australian States, have revived in a mild sort of way the local agitation for some practical steps towards a reduction in the cost of living. The debate in the House of Commons seems to have led to no very definite conclusion, but it is at least showed the Imperial Government is doing more than the New Zealand Government is to keep prices within reasonable bounds. In the .Commouwealth, of course, a great deal has been accomplished, particularly in New South Wales aud Queensland, to prove that Australian statesmen are attacking this problem with a great deal more courage than Mr Massey and Sir Joseph. Ward have yet displayed. The Labour Government in Queensland, perhaps with less concern for the interests of the farmers than Mr Massey usually exhibits, has handled the meat question so effectually that the cost of living in the Northern State is lower than itis in any other part of the Island Continent. In Now South Wales the Commodities Commmission, labouring under much less favourable conditions than ought to exist here, are regulating the prices of a score of articles without ruining either the producers or the impprtors, and with immense advantage to the consumers. It is to be hoped that Mr. MacDonald has not been left in charge of the Industries and Commerce Department here with a free enough baud to give effect to some of the recoin- ; mendations oLthe Board of Trade. Unfair Preference. A story comes from the bush dis- i triets of the Bay of Plenty which has astonished people here who have Imagined that preferential rates on the railways helping individuals and companies against other individuals and companies engaged in the same line of business were unknown, and, indeed, impossible in New Zealand. It appears that some thirty years ago a special concession was made to certain sawmillers in the Auckland, Westland, and Southland districts, in order to encourage the milling and export of white pine. The reduction of rates was made only in these special districts, not in fire whole of the country, with the result that mills in the Bay of Plenty, which during the last tew years, have been laying up stocks of. white pine in

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enable them to get rid of their supplies, find they are now handicapped by an extra charge which places them at a very grave disadvantage in competition with their favoured rivals. On* would have thought that a disability of this kind would have been removed wthout any demur at all from the authorities, but during the last year or two the Bay of Plenty millers have been making fruitless representations to the Minister of Railways, and now arc told they must wait till the war is over, when, according to the Minister, the concession “probably will be withdrawn.” The aggrieved parties would have no serious objection to the withdrawal of the concession, if the needs of the country justify this course, but they have a very, strong objection to being singled out for taxation which their rivals escape. Surely if their representations are correct, and on that point there seems to be no room for doubt, they will not be left to endure this injustice for an indefinite period, till after the war.