THE WELLINGTON ECHOES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 358, 8 April 1910, Page 7

THE WELLINGTON ECHOES.

('From Our Special Correspondent.) April 4th, 1910.

Politics this last week have been a perambulation of silence on the part ot Ministers. Thev are taking it in turns to listen to the farewells of Lord Plunket and between whiles they vie with ea-Ji otht'r in silence. All except the Minuter of lidik-ation, and he ..u-i. *ot i hesitate to speak with no uncertain sound when the Board of Governors of Wellington College addressed him n somewhat awkward question, it is .an old story now, this story of the free places .which have provided the above Board with a grim grievance against the public school system. When the law was passed making free places for certain students in the secondary schools some of the latter did not relish the somewhat high-handed .procedure bj which they were compelled to do things foreign to the conditions of their very existence. The stoutest of these was the Wellington College Board of Governors' It is needless to follow the struggle step bv step that ensued. Enough that the other day the Government set apart £3500 for the Board wherewith to put up a building for the girls entitled to free places in the Girls' High School, of which the Board is the governing authority. The chairman, who has had a long experience of Government ways, extending back into so remote an antiquity as a quarter of a century, smelt a rat, not liking the gift of so much coin from Mich a quarter. He could he no party, therefore, to acceptance without explanation from the Government of a very important point. Would the Government guarantee that more would be forthcoming when it might be wanted? Mr. Fowlds. who has been Ion? enouph in the Ministry to know mar, one Government cannot bid anv other with anv promise, sharply answered back that the whole of the information at the disposal of the Government on the subject of the grant was contained in the letter in which the offer of money was ipidc. Thereupon therp wns something like a row and. the decorous atmosphere of the coventors was disturbed by sharp interchanges of remark* Finnlh* the Board adjourned tho debate ilin order to ascertain .what it really can do with the monev.

The episode is valuable as showing that there is no difficulty in "ettinsr monev from the Government for this purpose. With the local aspect of the case. that, which brines out into strong relief the determination of some of the governor-, of this private institution not to meet the free-nlace poliev if they can possibly avoid doing so. no outsidein likely to have any concern or sympathy.

The successor to Deruaresq-Lloyd's book has just arrived in Wellington. It is the report of Colonel Weinstock,. ; the Labor Commissioner of the State of j j California, who has been travelling | ! amongst our Australian and Gana i ' dian neighbors taking notes. These lie has now printed in the vein of his pre-1 decessor. who was an unofficial Com- j missioner. With that predecessor he unites in describing this country as the I land without strikes. But he is not! unreserved in his commendation. The' colonel does not thfnk we are the first ] country in this matter of striking down I ' the striking evil. The first place he I assigns to Canada bv reason of ths | Canadian system of having a public en-1 •quiry into disputes before tho*e disputes can be permitted to develop into | either strikes or lock-outs. None, of; us is much chagrined. The fact is that \ we are all less gushing about strikes; than once we were. Time was when the least laudatorv reference to the arbitra-1 tion system devised for this Dominion I sent us into the seventh heaven of d'e- j liirht and inspired us all to patriotic | crowing. But even while our shrieks of J triumph were in the air, after Lloyd's whole-souled book, we had a number of narrow escapes from strike; quite onousrh to sober the most thorough beJicver in the "land without strikes." On the top of these came the famous de.fhn'tion of a strike as a thing of two kinds, the strike continuous and the strike non-oontinuous. Then we discovered that the second of these alone was •forbidden by law and our hearts were heavy. Thus it was a different New Zealand that settled down to amenr the Act in 1008. The work was done in workmanlike manner and the hopes for its success were free from the ancient extravagance. Therefore if the Colonel from Cnlinfornia does not declare that the result of that bitter frame of mine' | for good work is the best in the world we are not as ansrrv as once we should have been. On the contrary, we «r< very much oblicred to the Colonel for devoting so much of his snace to the conditions we have cstaWished and the work we have done. When the th'rd observer comes amonjr n« he will find out that we have lost all the old conceit, that we are simplv waiting to see if the nlan we have adopted for the prevention of strikes —namelv. the reduction of perversity to the irreducible minimum—is gnin.tr to work out with tl •rood nverasie. AVhen we look across the Tismsn PPf a+ Australia and see the way they fall with their strike we haft I ,«nme little conceit of our own. Never--1 thele's. recen*" experiences have dnstrov- '• ed the idei thit there is .in infu'lib l " unnarea -ionin-t strikes. Our attitude now is that we do our best to avoid them, but have no absolute certainty on j the subject. I * » » » The Chamber of Commerce has deI cided to help the Defence Department i with its compulsory training. "Let j them consult us," said Mr. Tcwsley, of ' the Sargood fraternity, ''and it will be j all right." We may regard the country as safe. When the Wellington "big guns" have said they say about the rHit thing to do with the citizen soldier in his hour of easy preparation to meet the foe, it will be certain that the foe will think better of it. He will know that this patriotic body of men has discovered the best method of watering the soil of the Fatherland with the blood of their brothers. The real defender is the Chamber of Commerce. And if the real defender won't bleed, clearly he must be left alone. That is what the satirists say. The friends of the Chamber, however, declare that the intention was only to take steps for | gecurine the convenience of employers without in any way diminishing the efficiency of the of their emmlnvees' Tn other words, they are ready to heln devise n system of hours .Mid times which shall meet the public nec«<«itv at a minimum of business dislocation, and that minimum they are ready to face without a murmur, even ■with nleasure. It is reallv the surrender of the old spirit of objection. It means that the employers of labor are convinced of the necessity and usefulness of a movement they once condemned. # * + • The Chamber, however, his done » rood thine which entitles it f o be considered as well meanine in this matter of defence. It has declared promptly in re the extravagance of the Harbor Board, that it 3s a case o£ "mea culpa?

reminding the citizens how in season and out of season its big guns boomed ''works, works, and nothing but works, - ' into the ear of the unhappy Board. If the tempters and compellers of all the harbor boards that have been extravagant were to follow this example there would be less heart-burning among those much-criticised bodies just now. Anyhow, if the mercantile interest will cultivate the right public spirit on the question of compulsory training, and if the preachers of extravagance would "own up" as cheerfully as the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, the world would be a better place.

Politicians and agriculturalists .were thrown into a state of great apprehension by the news that Mr. W. C. Buchanan had been nearly killed in a motor accident. Happily the thing turns out to have been not half so bad as the description of it. It is true that the veteran has had to retire to the hospital. But he declares that he has only received a rather bad cut on the leg and will be home in ft day or two all rieht. "So mote it be." is the cry of the whole conntrr-side. for Mr. Buchanan, of the corrugated, kindly face, and the short jerky, uncompromising speech, is one of the most popular men in this'part of the world. The farmers swear by him, the old pioneers re'enrd him as a fellow demi-god (only more so), the Opposition (well, when he is not boomin.tr the Dreadnought business) have a reverence for him amounting almost, to adoration, and the Government people respect him as a grand enemy who never gets on the wrong side of the hedge, while privately they have the highest esteem for his hiirh character. If the worst had happened on the road from that big wedding into Masterton the world would have been by this time richer by some interesting biographies of the veteran whose career has been of the most varied interest by flood and field. Away back in the fifties he stood on the South Australian beach helping to rescue the people in the wrecked Admela as they were washed ashore—that time the famous Hurtle Fisher was saved by has friend through the surf. Ten years' later he was fording the Typo in'flood, and other impossible rivers of the West Coast of Te Pounamu, supplying cattle for the new gold-fields. Ten years more saw him settled down in Canterbury and from there it was but a step to the Wairarapa, and he toolc it with his usual despatch and decision. • Ail this outline would have been filled out in a certain event. The public are much better pleased to have the veteran among tliem than his biography.

Peter Heyes is at last to be brought to trial before a Commission. Those who expected to hear something spicy against him in the case of the Bowro'n Bros., of Christcnureh, were disappointed. It is probable that those who have | similar expectations about the Commis-1 sion necessitated by the report of the Insurance Commissioner, who has been! for some months investigating into the Tax Department and acting as its head, may also be disappointed. Mr. Heyes has. it is said, a good answer all round. Indeed, it will be very much better for the service and the' public, and Mr. Tleyes himself, of course, if he has; and for reasons we need not go into here. At the same time there will soon be a new Commissioner of Taxes; and there auo people who point to Mr. Hudson—the second officer of the Government Insurance—as the man. He certainly is •n« of the most level-headed.

Since Powelka. escaped bv simply walking through the door left open fon him, the whole district has been in a state of looked and bolted premises, and the news of his latest escapade at Awakiuo, near Palmerston, has set the folk enquiring anxiously for more locks and bars.

We hare lost a Leader. Not Sir Joseph, not Mr. Massey, not Mr. Taylor (who leads the leaseholders to glory), and not Mr. Poole (who leads himself where he pleases). The lost Leader i» the famous picture presented to the city by Mrs. Rhodes. It was lost once before and found by the curious expedient, of paying a reward and asking no questions. Nobody is therefore surprised that it is lost'again. But this time we are offering not a ransom and impunity, but a reward for the apprehenlion and conviction of the thief. Some ef us are betting that somebody el»e will get that picture.

The Dominion will be sorry to learn that the Registrar of the University is to go to London to represent the institution there. A ripe scholar, an accomplished gentleman, Mr. Joynt will be much missed. He will return to the Old Country restored to his original vigor, almost if not quite. If so, he will be dble to improve tho occasion for those who take to unireristy study too closely: for before he left to throw in his lot with this country he had broken down from over-study and missed the rewards which life had to offer his vast abilities under happier auspices. ReooYerinar his powers, he sailed for the Dominion and has done very good work ■in#e his arrival some twenty years ago. Nelson saw the first mark he marie as popular and efficient headmaster of the famous .school there. After that the University found scope for his talents, snd society acknowledged him one of its brightest ornaments. A delightful lecturer, and enthusiastic musician, and learned, a literarv critic of great, depth >tnd power, we shall not look on his like •gain soon.