WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 3 January 1917, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

IMPEKIAL CONFERENCE. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Jan. 1. Of course, Mr James Allen's announcement that Parliament would not be summoned before the return of the party leaders to the Dominion surprised no one here. When Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward left for London it was semi-officially stated that they would be back by the end of January at the latest, and that an early session would be held in April or May in order that one or both might attend the Imperial Conference then expected in August or September. The earlier date now fixed for the Conference has necessitated a change in their, arrangements, and probably they will not be here till the end of March or the beginning of April, but in the altered circumstances there is no reason why Parliament should be called together before the usual time in June. It would be simply a waste of time and money to "bring members to Wellington to haggle over trivialities while awaiting the arrival of the travellers with more important business for their consideration. EXPORT DUTIES. There appears to be a very general disposition among the farmers of the North Island, or at any rate among those doing business with Wellington, to look less favourably upon export duties than they did at the beginning of the war. The butter-fat levy, the requisitioning of wheat and wool, and the negotiations for fixing the price of wheat have compelled them to revise their former attitude. They are beginning to realise that the needs of the Empire may require from them greater sacrifices than would be involved in the payment of 3 per cent, or 4 per cent. • upon such of their products as they might send out of the country. No doubt it was in recognition of this fact that the Minister of Railways, when speaking at the opening of a cheese factory the other day, expressed hmiself as ready to aceept an export tax as a means of keeping down the cost of living. Mr Herries is a convinced free trader, but he sees that circumstances alter cases, and that exceptional ills need exceptional treatment. REGCTLATING PRICES. The absence of the Acting Minister cf Industries and Commerce in Gisborne ha s not prevented good progress being made With tlie scheme he has in hand for regulating the prices of wheat, flour, and bread, and for placing the supply of meat intended for home consumption on a better footing. The members of the Board of Trade were in Auckland dealing with the meat question when they were recalled to Wellington to assist Mr. MacDonald in his negotiations with the wheat growers and millers, but they had practically completed their enquiries in the northern city, and probably they will have proposals to submit to the Minister in the course of a few days. It still seems likely that the price of wheat, which still forms the basis of the prices of flour and bread, will be fixed somewhere in the neighbourhood of five shillings a bushel, and will be regarded as satisfactory by a sufficient number of farmers to ensure a good area of land being under crop this year. PEACE AND GOODWILL. Strike talk has been suspended on both sides during the holiday season, and Capital and Labour, each after its way, have been celebrating the tiniebonoured festivals with rather, more than the usual gusto. There still, however, are a few timid souls about who take little trouble to disguise their fear that when the harvest comes round something very dreadful will happen. The same lugubrious prediction, it will be remembered, was made last year and the year before, after the shearers and waterside workers had failed to justify previous prophecies of a similar kind, and yet nothing occurred. Now there are no visible signs, not even a cloud as big as a man's hand, to indicate any Impending trouble. The labour leaders themselves say that if trouble comes at all it will come from the West Coast of the South Island, but at the moment the miners in this recognised storm centre seem to be more bent on enjoying their holidays in a legitimate way than upon disturbing the industrial peace on which their own well-being depends.