WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 October 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE BY-ELECTION. LAST WORDS. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Sept 30. Mr. Hildreth, the nominee of the Iheral Party and the accepted candate of the National Cabinet for the leant Wellington Central seat in the iouse of Representatives, made his rst platform appearance on Friday srening and on the whole acquitted imself well. He spoke clearly and uently and with a good understandig of most of the questions he disissed. Generally his speech was an adorsement of the policy put forard by the Liberal Party at the last eneral election—proportional repremtation, reduction in cost of living, ationalisation of coal mines and shiping services, State control of the liqor traffic, revision of labour laws and a forth—and the complaint of the abour and Radical parties is that he as raised their flag for the purpose f getting into Parliament with the inJntion of serving under the leaders f the “Tory” combination. A GENERAL ELECTION. The suggestion that Mr. Hildreth is ailing under false colours is, of ourse, not justified. He has acceptd the Liberal nomination—not eagrly, as some of his opponents have tated, but with very considerable reactance—on the understanding that ie will observe the terms of the party truce” till after the war. But his is not preventing him urging in aost emphatic terms that a general ilection should be held at the earliest jossible moment. In this he is receivng support from members of the two )lder parties as well as from members )f the Labour Party, and from all one sees and hears it would not be at all surprising to find the Cabinet itself during the approaching'session facilitating the way towards a dissolution. It is being whispered about that neither Mr. Massey nor Sir Joseph Ward would be averse to such a development. THURSDAY’S DECISION.

The general opinion here is that the contest on Thursday, for all practical purposes, will lie between Mr. Hildreth, the Government’s candidate, and Mr. P. Fraser, the Labour candidate, Mr. Mack will detach a good many votes from both the official candidates, but probably in such equal numbers that his presence in the field will not materially affect their relative positions on the poll. Mr. Atmore, probably the most effective platform speaker of all the candidates, will have no solid body of support behind him and cannot hope to do better than fill fourth place. The other two candidates, both, of course, inspired by admirable intentions, need not be taken into serious account. As between Mr. Hildreth and Mr. Fraser, the deciding factor will be the loyalty of the Reform electors to the party compact. With their support the Liberal nominee will be safe. THE TRAMWAY TROUBLE ,

The tramway trouble is still dragging on its tiresome and rather ludicrous way. The long-suffering public, at first inclined to sympathise with the men, are now pronouncing a plague on both parties and blaming the City Council for not exercising a stronger hand in bringing about a settlement. The men’s grievance is that their living wage, in the face of the high cost of living, is dependent upon them working overtime. This, of course, is opposed to all the tenets- of the modern labour creed and so far the men seem to stand on fairly firm ground. But the “go slow” policy, •which means missed trains and much ■business and social inconvenience, is rapidly exhausting the patience of the public, and if a settlement is not reached within the next few days there wil be an insistent demand from many quarters for intervention by the highest authorities.