WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 September 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE COAL DISPUTE. SATISFACTORY STATEMENT, (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Sept 23. There is a general feeling of relief here at the settlement of the coal pute on a basis that promises to prove stable and satisfactory to both parties. The fuel question in both its industrial and domestic aspects has been causing a good deal of inconvenience and anxiety for months past and the city is breathing easier for knowing the trouble is ended. It is hoped, too. that the better relations which have been established between the mine-owners-and the men by concession on

both, sides will prevent a recurrence of the trouble for many a long year. The conference which preceded the final settlement can hardly help being wide-reaching in its .results, and may even lead to the adoption of a system of conciliation by mutual concession which ultimately will' supersede the statutory tribunals altogether. That, However, is looking rather far ahead. For the present the community is content with being grateful for what has happened. THE TEAM WAY TEOUBLE The tramway trouble still remains with the people of Wellington and at the moment seems likely to pass through more serious stages before a settlement is reached. The men, like the miners, and, for the matter of that, like all workers who are demanding higher wages, are basing their case on the increased cost of living and so far are not without a considerable measure of public sympathy. They are not threatening a strike, but they are actually practising the “go slow” alternative. The car, service has been reduced, in consequence of the motormen and conductors refusing to work overtime, and the service that remains is running irregularly. The City Council’s offer of a 10 per cent bonus has been rejected and the men are standing firmly to their demand for a minimum wage of Is 4d an hour. The Mayor stales this would mean an additional expenditure of £12,000 a year an\i the men'felort this would represent merely their aditional expenditure upon the necessaries of life. THE BY-ELECTION.

The cost of living, it is now more plain than ever, is going to be made the chief 'bone of contention in the Wellington Central campaign. The nomination of candidates is taking place to-day and though it is probable one or two of the gentlemen who have announced - themselves may restrain their vaunting ambition at the last moment it Is pretty certain there will be three or four candidates on one side raging at the Government for not having kept down the price of bread and meat and butter and the rest and only one on the other side

emphasising the advantages New Zealand enjoys in this respect. Mr* Hildreth, the Government’s nominee, has not yet taken the public platform, but it is reported that he is making godS headway in the constituency and that he will not prove the “dumb dog” the people who want to saddle him with all the sins of his sponsors are making him out to be. LAND SETTLEMENT.

The telegraphed summary of the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald’s remarks at Gisborne on the subject of land settlement has attracted a good deal cf attention here and Is taken in some quarters to indicate a great forward movement in the land policy of the Government. This is a subject on. which the members of the National Cabinet could not be expected to see exactly eye to eye, and an inevitable result of their difference of opinion has been to keep it is in the background during the last few years. But Mr. D. H. Guthrie succeeded to the portfolio of Lands with ideas of his own, uot necessarily in entire accordance with those of his predecessor in office, and people who may be supposed to be in his confidence declare he has measures in preparation which will make for the closer occupation and more profitable employment of the land of the country. In any effort of the kind he may be sure of the cordial support of his colleague, the Minister of Agriculture. ANZAC PICTURES.

Nearly a year ago Sapper H. MooreJones offered the New Zealand Government his remarkable water-colour paintings of the Gallipoli battlegrounds. Sapper Moore-Jones, who is an artist of considerable ability, was with the Main Body, took a share in battles that thrilled the Empire and spent many months on Gallipoli before the evacuation. During that time he recorded with pencil and brush the historic beaches, gullies, spurs and hills, the dug-outs, trenches ana gun emplacements. His pictures are a faithful record and the only record of Anzac scenes. The Government might have been expected to seize without hesitation the opportunity to buy these paintings. But as a matter of fact it has delayed the purchase so long that there is danger now of the collection being lost to New Zealand altogether. The Commonwealth Governmetn has offered to buy at Sapper Moore-Jones’s own price, and within a week or two the Anzac pictures may go to Australia. It will he a real calamity if that is allowed to happen-