WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 August 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

- the labour position. LITTLE WORK UN CITY. '"'(Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 26. The Labour Bureau reported on Saturday that there was little work offerlng for manual labour in the city and that of twenty-two applicants for employment who had left their names at the office during the previous week, only seven had been placed. To-day there is an improvement and the officer in charge says he could find employment for “a few farm hands and others.” Against this, complaints are coming in from the country that competent farm hands are unobtainable, and that even inexperienced men willing to learn are extremely difficult to get. No doubt the return of Spring will create a better demand for labour In the city, where much outside work has been interrupted or stopped altogether by the continuous wet weather; but this will only accentuate the troubles of the farmers, who mainly through the disinclination of young men to go into the country, rarely can find the number of men they could profitably employ. THE NATIONAL PROHIBITION POLL. Though it may not have been exactly politic for a leader of the prohibition movement to announce that in the event of the proposaTTo place the three issues of continuance, prohibition and State Control on fhe ballot paper, without providing for preferential voting, his party would at once start an agitation for prohibition without compensation on a bare majority vote, but it is only natural there should be a very strong protest against the attempt to divide the friends of prohibition and State Control against one another and thus insure the carrying of continuance. Many electors in favour of State Control, so a member of the prohibition party says to-day, while giving their first vote to their own particular remedy for the evils of the drink traffic, would give their second to prohibition and so ensure It being counted against continuance. Probably there are many other State Controlites who would prefer continuance to prohibition, hut the friends of the latter issue evidently think a majority of the “middle-coursers” would be on their side if unable to obtain precisely what they wanted. I MINERS AND MINE-OWNERS. ,

The decision of the Government to appoint a Royal Commission to enquire into the dispute between the miners and the mine-owners has relieved the tension for the moment, but till after the owners’ meeting here on Wednesday it will he impossible to say whether or not it will lead to an amicable settlement between the parties. Were it not for the war, probably the owners would rely upon the ■existing agreements to justify their refusal to meet the men under, any conditions, but the importance of preserving industrial peace in the present crisis may induce them to reconsider their attitude. It is understood that several members of the Cabinet were inclined towards more drastic action in the matter, involving the assumption of the control of the mines by the State; but in the absence of Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, whom, it would appear from this morning’s cables, cannot be expected to return before the end of next month, a majority of the noinisters were opposed to this step. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

Speaking on Saturday evening at a gathering of the Orphan’s Club, a social body that enjoys the patronage and confidence of the Governor-Gen-eral and Ministers, Sir James Allen spoke a piece concerning conscientious objectors. The most interesting statement he made was that the fourteen C.B.’s deported and sent to France some time- ago were now “fighting w r ith their did not know how their conversion had been brought about, but it was a matter on 'which both they and the country were to be congratulated. The most puzzling conscience he had discovered was that of the objector who had never lead the Bible nor entertained any religious convictions. He simply based Ms refusal to do his duty to the country on his own “opinions,” and of course his case was hopeless. Arid yet he was typical of most of the men who claimed exemption on the score of ccnscientious scruples!