WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1917, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MOVING PICTURES. PROTEST PROM METHODIST COR. fERENCE. (From Our Own Correspondents Wellington, March 5. The Methodist Conference, which con* tinues to he as intensely practical as the traditions of its church demand, pays a distinctly back-handed compliment to the authorities responsible for the supervision of picture shows. While congratulating the Government upontho appointment of a censor, it expresses regret that "photo-plays containing, suggestive and vulgar scenes continue to be screened at many of our picture theatres, to the moral detriment df the community," and suggests that the censorship should be extended so that the announcements preceding the screening of the films, and the newspaper and poster advertisements of picture and other plays might come within its scope. There certainly is need for some closer surveillance in this direction. The casual visitor to the picture shows has no« ticed little improvement in the quality of the films' since the institution of the censorship, and none in the general tone of the plays presented. Probably the fault lies \y[U\ the instructions given to the censor rather than with his own conception of what is right and proper. THE COST OP LIVING. The members of the Board of Trad* have returned to Wellington from their trip to Gisborne and Auckland to find calls for their presence in several other parts of the Dominion. The cost of Mving, in spite, of all the efforts of the Acting-Minister of Industries and Commerce, continues to mount up, and, in centres not so prosperous as Wellington; the pinch of high prices is being felt very acutely by some of the workers. It seems that the Higher price fixed ' tot wheat, added to an increase in the wages of carters and in the eo?t of fuel, has released tho bakers of their promise to keep down the price of bread and that no compuls'on can be fairly applied to them. The Board of Trade, by making arrangements with the local freezing company, was able to adjust the price of moat in Gisborne, but where the butchers have to obtain their supplies in the open market no arrangement of the kind appears to be possible. Briefly, it looks nt the moment as if nothing short of the nationalisation of the retail trades could materially help the consumer. WAR AN'D RAILWAYS. The statements made by certain rafl« way officials before the Military Service Board the other day have given numbers oT people the impression that the Minister of Railways and the General Manager are not working in perfect harmony in the administration of their department. There is, however, no ground for this idea." Mr. Herries has wished to postpone the reduction of train services .till the end of the financial year, and in this respect the General Manager has readily deferred to his view; but they both recognise that if the staff is to bo further weakened by the conscription of experts and others the public will have to put up with fewer travelling facilities. Tho principal trains on the main lines will be mainta'ned, and practically all tljp goods trains, but smaller services which have grown up under pressure of one kind and another will be put out or materially reduced, and it is hoped that by this' means a considerable number of men may be spared for the front or for other war work.