WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3503, 15 June 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

SESSION OF PARI'.IAF.\-lEN'l‘.

LONG AND ARDUOUS.

(‘Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON. June 1%.

A semi-oflicial statement appearing in the Dominion this morning is onviously intended to prepare members of Parliament and the public ‘fur 3, long and arduous sessionl Mr .\la.ssey suggests :hat members may be required to remain in Wellington for live or six months and that the business they will have to deal with will be of a particularly difiicult and delicate character. There will be an Educa:ion‘Bill, embodying some of the Hon. J. A. Hanan’s proposals and some of the new Minister’s own; :1 Railway Bill, perhaps revolutionising the whole management of the State lines; a il.u.nd Bill, dealing with many old and new problems connected with land settlement, and a Finance Bill‘, Wlllcllg of necessity, will tux Mr Massey ’lfill- - to the utmost. There can be no reduction in the volume of taxation, as every penny of the present revenue will be required, but the Prime Minister has hopes of “giving relief in some directions” and “obtaining compensation in others,” a pious desire that many another Minister of Finance has expressed. THE MINISTRY.

! It is now being whispered about, without any ofiicial authority. so far l as can be gathered, that the numerical ‘strength of the Cabinet will be permanently maintained on the war footing of twelve. At present. it numbers eleven, ten in the House of Representatives, and Sir Francis Bell in the Legislative Council, and though Sir William Fraser is to retire shortly it is understood that his successor has been nominated and that there will be no reduction in numbers when he withdraws. There still will be two portfolios unallovtted, that of Mines, which Sir WVill‘.iam Fraser lwikl, lay down, and that of Defence, which at presen: is in the temporary and unwilling custody of Mr Coates, who is finding Public Works, with its various ramifications, quite enough for one pair of hands. Mr J. A. Young is still the popular tip for the succession to Sir William Eraser, but there are many eager aspirants for the twelfth appointment which at present, of course, is only in the air. THE BOARD OF TRADE.

In the reshuifles of ministerial offices the presidency ‘of the Board of Trade has fallen to the Hon P. Lee, who promises to be carrying a fair load when all the odds and ends of administration have been shifted on to his broad shoulders. The Board, it is reported, is to be reconstructed -out of all knowledge and t.o be in much closer contact with the Minister than it has been hitherto. Whether Mr Lee will take «a more sanguine view of the possibility of regulating the cost of living than Mr Massey has done in the past remains to be seen, but probably he will have more time to devote to the various problems confronting his new ofiice -than Mr Massey ever has had. The"Pl'ime Minister stili is greatly over-burdened with the leadership of the party and the portfolios of Finance and Railways, but he continues to bear himself cheerily and remains quite undismayed. BUTTER PRICES. Business men in Wellington will not concede that Mr Massey has got the better of the argument with Mr Good.fellow in regard to butter prices. They maintain, indeed, that the chairman of the Dairy Association has stated the case from the econmic view perfectly fairly, and that if the New Zealand public is to have butter at a price below the market value the full differences must. be made up to the producers from the consolidated fund. This, they maintain would be, a roundabout way of giving them a free market, and to the State a costly one, but it would be a compromise in the direction of justice, and perhaps it would suit the politicians of all party colours to leave the public under the delusion that it was getting cheap butter, when as at mafter of fact it would be paying the balance of the full value by way of taxation.