WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1916, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

•LABOR UNREST. PERSISTENT RUMORS. (From Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Den. 22. The rumors of dewing labor troubles continue, and nt (lie moment they are more definite and disquieting than they were forty-eight hours ago. Perhaps,this is due to the fact un anti-conscrip-tion conference has been sitting iit Wellington during the last day or two, and focussing a certain amount of public attention upon the policy of the peace-at-any-price party, which seems to be composed of the most bellicose people in the community, ready to tight anybody and anything except the Germans' and Prussian militarism. Enquiries in the usually well-informed quarters, as the phrase goes, elicit no information that can be taken to portend the near approach of a great industrial upheaval. The labor leaders still say ths men, speaking generally, have no grievance against the employers, and are really anxious to maintain the peace during war-time, while most of the employers declare their relation's with their workers have been better during the year that is just closing than they had been for a long time previously. But tlie quidnuncs shake their heads,- and say "Wo shall see what we shall see," and some of the people in high places are evidently anxious over the outlook.

THE WHEAT 'PROBLEM. The members of the Board of Trade returned this morning from thoir conference with the millers and bakers in Christchurch, and are now busy preparing their report upon the whole wheat question for submission to the Minister. Mr. MaeDonald hirr.sclf was unable to mke the second trip South in connection with thi; matter, owing to the urgent demands that are being made upon him in other directions, but he kept in constant communication with the members of the Board during their absence, and now has his scheme for encouraging wheat-growing practically completed. Of course, neither the Minister nor the members of the Board are yet disposed to discuss the subject freely for publication, but it is possible, by putting two and two together, to make a fairly shrewd guess at the nature of the recommendations that will be placed before the Cabinet. It may be laken for granted that the wheat-growers' proposal that the price guaranteed by the State should he 6s 3d a bushe! was simply intended to establish a high level, from which ;t would be easy to descend. The Minister's idea of value, on the other hand, has been obtained from a close investigation of the facts, and probably it will be found to be in (he neighborhood of 5s a bushel—a 'ittle more or a litt?e less. This would enable flour to be sold at £l3 a ton, and bread at 7d a loaf, cash over the counter.

THE REAL POSITION. There appears to be no unanimity »ven among the farmers of Canterbury as to the cost of growing wheat, and, if course, the cost varies in different oealities. But the well-known Canterbury farmer who lias put it down at "is 2d or os 3d a bushel for a crop of ill bushels an acre, grown on land rented t 30s an acre, is confronted !>'.■ the fact that other farmers in his own district testitied to (he Board of Trade •lily five or six months ago that -vheat n an average year was a paying; erop at 4s or 4s 3d a bushel. Mr. MaeDonald, however, is inclined to deal generously with the farmer, as he must do, probably, to induce him to grow the wheat ie country will jequire, and the present indications are that the guaranteed nice will be the one alieady stated. Tlie position is very intimately affected bjythe enormous accumulating surplus in Australia, for though the Imperial authorities have purchased what remains of last season s crop, some 100,000,000 bushels, there is no guarantee that they will take the surplus of the approaching season, which is estimated at not less than 110,000,000 bushels. With this enormous quantity of wheat at their very cioors, the New Zealand farmers would be in a much stronger position with a guaranteed 5s a bushel than tbe.v would be with. a very problematical Gs 3d a bushel. CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. Mr. Lloyd George's appeal for the exercise of economy in small, tilings :is well as in large, though the subject of universal Comment and commendation here, does not seem to have affected the Christmas trade of the shopkeepers by a single penny. A number of tradesmen that have been interviewed on the subject say that business so far is distinctly better than it was last year, purchasers evidently having plenty of money to spend. Generally, buyers are looking for rather better and more substantial goods than they took twelve months ago, preferring useful articles to mere toys and flimsy fancy a.-tides, and patronising more largely than usual the drapers' shops and the furniture warehouses. No doubt shopkeepers in Wellington are farina rather better than are the shopkeepers in other centres, the soldiers in camp providing them with a little army of customers wlio are not given to haggling over shillings Or confining their expenditure to children's playthings; but the reports from the provincial towns are all favorable from the sellers' point of view, and apparently the general application of Mr. Lloyd George's precepts has been postponed till after the holidays.