WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

•rUBUC WORKS, «

(from Our Special Correspondent)''

Wellington, July 111. "N T o one outside the immediate conlidI'lire of tlie Minister was expecting tlie Public Works Statement lust night, and no one, iipjiurently, was greatly concerned about its contents when 'Mr. I'raser laid it on the table of the House in the most casual .manner possible, and suggested (Jiat the Kstimates might be taken on Friday next. Kven to-day no vast amount of interest in the document is being displayed, perhaps because it provides for no new expenditure upon roads and bridges and post ofliee clocks, but the humorists around the lobbies are pointing afrcsb their old jests about the Minister's promised economies by allusions to the fact that of the £1,838,201 ne has at his disposal for the current years only the odd £2(11 is to be saved from the maw of the clamorous cler-lor. With party warfare suspended this sort of thing is the legitimate sport of Mr. I'raser's many friends, and their banter is always accompanied by a whole-hearted recognition of the charm of his personal qualities. Coming into ofliee with many protestations of their determination to keep the expenditure down the lieformcrs lifted it up in their first year from £2,340,380 to £2,548,018. In their second year they increased it at £2,7:17,3114. Last year, with the war stiil making its enormous demands upon th(! public purse, they thought £2,344,!)tl—an odd thousand or two more than the amount spent in ]!)l2—a reasonable compromise, and now Mr. Fraser is practising the enforced virtue of spending no more than lie has got. The situation certainly lends itself to the gentle art of the humorist. PwULWAY KXPFA'DITriiK.

The only really big figures in the Public Work* Estimates have to do with railway construction and additions to open lines, and even these are not of their former dimensions, simply because the exigencies of the times have compelled the Minister to cut his coat according to his reduced supply of cloth. There will he grumbling, of course, over the allocation of the money available for this class of work, and in normal times there might be room for some imputations of party favors; but people acquainted with the needs of the North Auckland district anil the East Coast district will not cavil over the comparatively generous treatment they have received. North .Auckland got all its vote expended last year, a total of ,C 141.01i0 odd, and this war it is given £!)2.000, while the Midland railway was £IO,OOO o r £II.OOO short in its expenditure of £93.0(1(1, and this vear is allotted only :C(i!),000. The' Kast Coast Main Trunk absorbed some £123,0(10 last year—certainly not a penny more than was its due—and for the current year is given £102,000, which ought to be fully spent. Outsiders freely admit this is the most important railway work in progress in the North Island at the present time, and if its prosecution had been accompanied by a comprehensive land acquisition and settlement policy money spent upon its completion would have been a splendid investment for the country. .Most of the criticism levelled against the flovcrnment's proposals is along these lines. Land acquisition should have preceded railway construction and settlement would have followed so speedily that the expenditure would have been handsomely remunerative irom the first. THE ENIGMA OF THE HOUSE.

The ways of Mr. Jolm Payne are inexplicable One of the best-informed mm in the -House, one of the widest read and one of the most kindly disposed, he seems at times to have no sense of responsibility, no idea of proportion, no regard for his own dignity or for the susceptibilities of other people. He lias not even the excuse of a hasty temper. When he is saying his hardest tiling, when he is making the most outrageous charges against politicians, when he is impugning their motives or even their personal honesty, lie imparts no more bitterness to his words than he would if he wtre upbraiding a friend for failing to keep n social engagement. His outbreak last night was particularly deplorable. He had worked himself up as best lie could to a semblance of indignation against the exemption of war debentures from income t&x. lie had discussed the question before in a perfectly sane and orderly fashion when supporting Mr. Wilford's protest against an arrangement which quite a number of members regarded with disfavor. But apparently he imagined he would not have done justice to bis reputation as a daring student of finance unless be .did something spectacular. He wanted to be sure of having done what he thought to he his whole duty. "Any Minister who would bring forward such a proposition ns this," he shouted during the course of his speech, "is one of the biggest traitors to the British Kmpire." The inevitable demand from the Speaker for the withdrawal of the expression brought only the retort. ''l never say anything so damnable in all by life," and a prompt refusal. After this, only one course was open lo Sir Joseph Ward, who lias been leading the House during Mr. Massey's illness, and Mr. Payne was excluded for the remainder of the sitting. It is a thousand pities that a member capable of doing so much excellent work should persist in methods which ran ap-

peal no more to Ms own better sense Hum they do to the sympathy of his fellow-members. RAKER CRITICISM. One of the worst results of such extravagant language as Air. Payne and one or two other members of the Labor group occasionally employ is that it mahes less impetnious members of the House disinclined to voice their own criticism of the (Jovernment's proposals. Old hands like 'Mr. Wilford, Mr. Isitt. Mr. Witty, Mr. Sidcy. Mr. Smith and others are not deterred from expressing their opinions by any fear of identifying themselves with the lircbrands jitling in the hack benches, but younger members, whose views might help the lfou.se, very well may think it ('.esirablo to move warily in such company. The very point which Mr. Payne attacked with such inexcusable warmth is quite an arguable one. There are very high authorities both here and in the Mother Country who strongly deprecate the exemption of war loans from the payment of income tax. Hut they do not imply that the people who hold a different view from themselves are in league with the payment of income tax as "damnable." They consider it unnecessary and inexpedient. The young politician who expressed this opinion in the House would run the risk of being dubbed as a disciple of the member for ftrey Lynn, und this is a distinction which would opt at

the moment help him in obtaining 4 hearing from the people he wished to influence or perhaps in securing a renewal of the confidence of his constituents. It> must be said for Sir Joseph WaTd in this connection, by the way, that lie treated Mr. Payne with the very greatest forbearance throughout last uight'B in* cident and took the extreme step onlyj when nothing else could save tho dig» nity of the House.