WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3411, 16 February 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE COAL CEJNFERENCE.

. SLOW PROGRESS. ..__..__. (Special Correspondent.) . WELLINGTON, Feb. 12. so far the Coal Conference has made little progress With the more serious of the problems it was summoned to consider. At the "opening of the proceedings on Vvtednesday the owners’ representatives were anxious to get ahead rapidly and would have disscussed at once the relative merits of the contract system and the wages system, but the Prime Minister dissuaded them from this course and now the business is progressing in a more leisurely and deliberate fashion. It is regarded generally as a favourable omen:-for an amicable settlement of- the dispute, but the Press having been excluded from the sittings of /the.:collference:it is difficult to judge of the attitude. and temper of the delegates. The representatives «of both sides- remain very reticent, and the -most‘ that can be got from them is‘th,a,tz thenegotiations have not yet reachedqa pcrucial stage. . _.:,-REGO,hISTRUCTIOI'\'. Mr-_ Massey’s assumption of the presidency of the Coal Conference has accentuated! the‘-Eneed ‘for the earlyf strengthening of.’-ttlflel cabrrnet. It ,:hoped the Conference--will make only a temporary demand‘ upon his time, but] Whether this is tlié?)da's‘e"o‘r'liot the! Prime Minister cannot I continue to‘ carry the load he is at present bear- i ing without seriously ‘impairing his health. ' Already he issliowing signs of over-work, ,which has been his lot] ever since his return from the Peace Conference, and if he attempts to carry‘«on for another month or two without adequate assistance, as seems to be his present intention_..the consequences may be very g‘fa.ve. Sir James I Allenls absence .on the Samoan trip may be the last straw to make his burden unbearable, and among his other colleagues there is not one sufficiently experienced in general administration to afford him any material relief. POLITICAL SPECULATION. ,Mr Massey’s difficulty in undertaking the immediate reconstruction of his Cabinet would be in making a choice from the number of aspirants for office. It is a point on which -he would like to consult the members of his party, but -this: would be an ex-_ tremely delicate experiment and in the end probably would give him no‘ useful guidance. There are suggestions that in fulfilment of his declarations before the general election he should call representatives of the Liberal and Labour parties to his counsels, but the idea is; n.ot finding fa-f vour with/the rank and file of his own I party and it is doubtful if the “best brains” selected from the other parties would particularly anxious to stultify themselves in the eyes of their constituents by accepting subordinate p-ositions in a Ministry that‘ would be under no obligation to defer to their views on any vital question of policy. I THE SAMOAN TRIP. There has been much talk during! the last week or two of the difliculties that would beset the Samoan excursion in getting away from Wellington. It has been alleged that the water side workers would refuse to have anything to do with the Mokoia and that their fellow unionists would assist them in maintaining 'a. strict boy—l. cott against the vessel. It was even whispered that the Seamen’s Union would bar her progress and if, Sir James Allen wished to keep faith with his guests he would have to persuade them to man the stokehold and ‘fake watch and Watch about on deck. But all this appears to have been rather cheap and obvious humour and to have originated with the street gossips and not with the workers themselves. The Government, however, has taken The precaution of fully equipping the Mokoia in Diznedin.