WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1916, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

A MINOR FINANCIAL DEBATEEARLY CLOSING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, June 23. Although Mr. Pearce's amendment to the motion to go into Committee of Supply on Wednesday stayed the progress of the Estimates till late yesterday afternoon, the Government still is able to congratulate itself upon having got the Budget out of the way without the ,'nstoniary debate. The amendment oDened up a wide field for discussion, and threatened at one time to occupy the House for the rest of the Week, but after the first, half-dozen speakers iiad said the obvious things, interest in theyproeeedings rapidly waned and no one was sorry when the weary iteration finally ceased The return to.the Estimates gave members an oppprtunity to air a number of local grievances and to offer the Minister much sage advice. The Postmaster-General was told of scores of districts that wanted slot tele. phones, better telegraphic communication, cheaper delivery of messages and other boons of various kinds, but Mr. EH with his impassioned appeals was no more successful than Mr. Ngata with his entertaining raillery in extracting any extravagant sroinises from the Minister. The Post and Telegraph vote was put through shortly after 10 o'clock and then the railway vote kept a drowsy Committee engaged until the small hours e« the morning.

AMALGAMATING DEPARTMENTS.

While answering a batch of question* put to him during the consideration of the Railway Estimates last night, the Hon. W. H. Howies caressed again his ■ hope that the Tourist Department very soon would be amalgamated with the Railway Department. Something certainly should be done to terminate the ridiculous competition between these two departments, which makes for 'wither economy nor efficiency, and perhaps amalgamation would be the best way out of the difficulty. But if this course is adopted the Minister who controls (he amalgamated Departments must see '.hat the many little services rendered to the public by the tourist bureau are continued. It would be well for the Cabinet to look very closely into this aspect of the question before it finally adopts Mr. Hemes' suggestion. It is just possible the Minister of Railways does not know of all the Tourist Department is doing. Mr. Craigie, the member for Tinnmi, is now urging that ir, should take over the functions of tin Immigration Department, which are now well within its capacity, and it is not easy to fee how the Railway Department with its less adaptable organisation could undertake this wwk.

SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING. . The Parliamentary Committee that Is considering the petitions in favor of closing the hotels at (1 p.m. during the mntinnsnec of *ii,. war has had its next sitting postponed till Tuesday next in consequence is! the absence of one or two of its prominent members from Wellington, and ther* are Suspicious people who s-ee in this a ruse to prevent its report being presented to the House in tiiiin t,i be considered this session. Careful enquiries have discovered nothing to justify this rather unworthy suggestion nor to encourage the belief that ' the postponement will materially delay the presentation of the report. Tt is un- .'.< rstood in the lobbies that the Committee is evenly divided on the question and that the casting vote of the chairman will decide whether the report shall be favorable or the reverse to the prayer of the petitioners. In the. meantime, the partisans on both sides are working assiduously and may be found about the precincts of the House at any hour of the day or night. Of course, the evidence submitted to the Committee has been of a very mixed and contradictory character., but probably all the members of the House have made up their-minds mi the question and would require no assistance in coming to a decision if they were required to express one.

THF RELIGIOUS OBJECTOR. The Military Service Bill, which is set down for. committal in the Legislative Council on Tuesday next, will come back to the House with a clause, presumably approved by the Cabinet, exempting religious objectors from military service provided they express their readiness to undertake equivalent noncombatant service. No exemption will he granted to.the mere conscientious objector and apparently the Government is prepared to face the delicate task of distinguishing between a man's religion and his conscience This, it will be remembered, was the position taken up by the Minister of Defence when he was urged two or three years ago to deal with this knotty problem. He drew what he conceived to he a distinct line between" ♦he rcligion-i objector and the conseien- ' timis obieetor and, though many of bis critics refused to see the distinction, lie absolutely declined to budge from his conviction, What the House will do with the proposal can be only conjectured, but with a majority of the Cabinet favoring the limited enimssinx, vbieli has been won largely by the forces martialled around Mr. Isitt, the |.iobability if it will be, accepted and retained in the Bill. Some members may hive a little difficulty in squaring their \icws of a week or two ago with the Ministerial mind of to-day, but never before has the Cabinet been so absolute as it is at the present time.