WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1916, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

AMERICAN MEAT TRUSJ. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 22. Naturally the companies and firm? handling New Zealand produce are very sensitive over the mention of the American Meat Trust in connection with their business. At the opening of the new works of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company at Wanganui last week Mr. H A. Knight, the chairman of the board of directors, gave a most specific and emphatic denial to a rumor that the company had been assisted in its enterprise by American capital, and intimated very plainly the company's inten tions to take legal - proceedings against any maliciously disposed person by whom the rumor might be repeated. Now a well-known firm of meat buyers doing business all over the country has published a similar disclaimer and issued a similar warning. There is not the least'reason to suppose that these concerns are in any way associated with the Meat Trust, financially or otherwise, but the rumors that have got about, taken in conjunction with facts that have been ascertained, suggest that the (Government should take such step 3 as may be necessary to prevent foreign speculators obtaining advantages in the London market which are not available to New Zeland farmers and buyers.

THE DRIVERS' DISPUTE. The absence of Mr. Berries, the acting Minister of Labor, in the south mukes it difficult to. obtain any authoritative information in regard to the steps that are being taken towards securing a settlement of the drivers' dispute. That the trouble' is assuming Serious dimensions is obvious from the attitude jf the unions in the various centres, and if it is not dealt with promptly and firnilv it may be attended by grave results. Though the drivers are flying in the face of an award of the Arbitration Court and to that extent are, in tne view of many people, placing themselves in the wrong, there is a great deal of public sympathy with their contention that the wages fixed by the Court are totally inadequate. The driver of a onehorse vehicle is- now receiving £2 12s a week and the driver of a two-horse vehicle £2 lfis. This is an increase of 4s a week. in each case on the wages provided by the old award, which is just expiring, but 4s a week does not, it is contended, cover the increase in the cost of living. The problem of living on 7s fid a day, with rent running into from lfis to 20s a week, is one which the married man with children expresses himself as quite unable to solve.

WOMEN'S OPPORTUNITY. The news from Sydney that a women's national party is being formed there to secure the co-operation of women to promote the national welfare and to obtain adequate political and municipal representation has set some people in Wellington talking about the additional responsibilities placed upon women by the absence of a large proportion of the menkind of the Dominion at the war. The change in the proportion between the sexes in this country during the last two years or so is not generally realised. At the end of 1911 there were 539.729 males in New Zealand, exclusive of Maoris, and 485,677 females, a majority of 54,052 males. By the end of 1912 the majority had decreased to 53 • 797 and by the end of 1913 to 53,556, the change in the relative positions having been very slow. But by the end of 1914, after five months of war, the male majority had dropped to 40,328 and by the end of 1915 to 25,132. During the first two quarters of 191G the margin declined to 8.507 and at the close of the year the male m'ajority will have disappeared altogether and the females will be leading by some 8000. - What ari they going to do with their opportunity ?

PLUCK AND PATIENCE. A New Zealander who has been serving on the engineering staff of a British destroyer since the commencement of the war, writing from "the German Ocean" to a friend in Wellington, discourages the idea that the war will be over "all in a hurry," but expresses supreme confidence in the ultimate result of the struggle. "I still hold to my original opinion as to the duration of the war," he says. "The great offensive has been magnificent, worthy of the best traditions of the British Army; but it has not yet carried us to the German frontier, and the Huns are still in Belgium and Poland, and, hardest of all, in France. But what does it matter? We are in the game now and whether for a year or foi ten >ve are going to give the Germans such a hiding that they never will raise then heads again. . . Infofmation concerning the sinking of submarines is not permitted, but we have done something in this way ourselves and on our notice board«yesterday appeared the following screed: 'Gieat joy in Hades. The crew of the U docked this tide.' " Unfortunately the letter trenches too closely on the war regulations to be quoted in extenso, but it is full of words of good cheer to the friends of the writer who are watching the fight from this end of the world.