WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1915, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

ECHO OF THE STRIKE. 1 By TelegrapL-r-Special to Daily News. , Wellington, Last Night. The House of Representatives was engaged again this afternoon in the discussion 'of ..'certain petitions that are an aftermath of the great strike of 1913. Some farmers who lent horses and saddlery to the Farmers' Union for the use of the special constables did not recover their property, and they are asking,. Parliament to pay them compensation. The House is lukewarm on the point, but probably would be willing enough that the Government should pay something if it were not for the attitude of the Labor members, who want to know just what was the standing of the Farmers' Union. The Labor members are witling that "the compensation should be paid if the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Massey Government, will say that the Farmers' Union was asking with the authority of the Ministry when it borrowed the goods, but Mr. Massey, apparently, is not prepared to say anything of the sort. The discussion wandered over a wide field this afternooD, but it cannot be said to have reached any definite conclusion. The petitions will go before the National Goverrfment in due course, and the probabilities are that the petitioners will get nothing. They will have to deal with the persons or organisations which borrowed the horses and saddles. • . . RECRUITING. In conversation with your correspondent, the Minister for Defence (Hon. J. Allen) emphasised the need for a substantial increase in the rate of recruiting. Mr.; Allen is optimistic regarding the position, as he has been from the first. He believes that the young men of New Zealand, and particularly the single men,' are jgoing forward in sufficient numbers to meet all requirements as soon as they realise that the need is urgent, but he does,, not disguise his realisation of the fact that the strain upon the dominion's resources during the next twelve months is going to be severe. The Defence authorities require some 8000 additional recruits before the beginning of January, and then they will want further drafts to the rate of about 4000 every second month. "We have a very big task before us, and we have got "to realise that fully," said the Minister. "We must have these men. We have undertaken to send forward reinforcements at certain fixed intervals, and the men at the front are depending upon receiving those accessions of strength up to time. There can be no failure. I want the men of this country to face the facts for themselves, and decide what they should do. We are making our appeal to every single and able-bodied man between the ages of 20 and 40 years, and at this crisis in the history of our nation I do not think that they can fail."

MEAT FOR HOME. The question of whether or liot speculators have been making profits out of New Zealand meoj after it has been acquired by the Imperial authorities at fixed prices was raised by Mr. T. M. Wilford (Hutt) in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr. Wilford read cablegrams whioh had appeared in the Australian newspapers bearing on the point. The Prime Minister said that under the arrangement made in the previous May the Imperial Government took all New Zealand frozen meat at certain prices. No part of the beef went upon the London market, everv pound of it being used by the troops. The War Office dill not want any lamb for the troops, arid it did not want much mutton. The surplus meat, that was, all the lamb and most of the mutton, was placed upon the London market under the direction of a committee appointed by the Board of Trade. The committee* consisted of Sir Thomas Robinson, Sir Montagu Nelson, and the Hon. T. Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand. The meat was marketed through the firms which would have handled it in nontilial times, in order that the trade connection might be maintained and distinction avoided after the war. He did not think that any of New Zealand's meat was going to France. The French Government, as a matter of fact, had not yet opened the door to frozen meat. Mr. Massey added (hat lie had cabled to the High Commissioner for a report regarding the suggestions that there was speculation in New Zealand meat after it left the hands of the Board of Trade's committee. The idea of the Imperial Government had been to protect the consumers in the United Kingdom by having the frozen meat put on the market at fair current prices. He hoped to be able within a few days to tell th*e House what the exact position was.