WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SPORT AND WAR. THE GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE, (Special Correspondent). Wellington, March 16. Judging from his latest public utterance on the- subject, the Minister of Internal Affairs lias modified his earlier views as to the measure of restriction tliat should he placed upon racing during war time. Probably he has come to realise, as the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Defence must have done, that from economic and military points of view racing is not exercising the baneful influence upon the community he had supposed. Mr Russell now suggests that the Government should submit a scheme to the Racing Conference and the Trotting Conference for reducing the number of meetings, or that the Conferences should submit a scheme to the Government, and that the task should be approached from the sentimental point of view which assumes that it is unseemly people remaining in the Dominion should be gambling and merry-making when the soldiers are fighting the battles of the Empire. This seems to be a sane way of dealing with the problem if thb Government and the Conferences between them can frame a scheme that will survive the political "pull" of the smaller clubs, substantial good may result from their joint efforts.

THE GAMBLING EVIL. While the Government is dealing with the further regulation of race meetings along the lines suggested by Mr Russell, it ought to take into consideration a very grave menace to the community that is fastening itself on to a perfectly legitimate sport. Probably the day when the question as to whether the totalisator has lessened or aggravated the gambling evil could be profitably discussed has passed, but the bookmaker, who is flourishing in the land exceedingly, could be so easily suppressed that there seems no reason why his extinction should be delayed beyond the first week of the next session of Parliament. All that is needed is a short Act of three or four clauses, or an amendment to the existing law, rendering the bookmaker liable to the pains and penalties provided for other disorderly people. It is understood that the Attorney-General has some measure of this kind in contemplation, but the evil is so wide-spread anil flagrant the Minister ought not to lack the assistance of the public opinion in making up his mind.

NATIONAL. EFFICIENCY. _ The National Efficiency Board is receiving, through the Government ami other channels, as well as directly, a great deal of gratuitous advice upon' the 'discharge of its important duties. Most of its counsellors are concerned chiefly witli the organisation of labor and its employment upon essential works. It is said there are 0(100 or 7000 Dalmatians, of more or less doubtful loyalty, on the North Auckland gunfields, and long before the Farmers' Union suggested these people should be turned to useful account under military supervision, where labor is urgently required. This is one of the big problems of the situation. A smaller one is the further employment of women, and here there will he no reluctance on the part of the people immediately concerned. Women are clamoring for war work, without making any stipulation as to its character, and probably a couple of thousand capable girls could be found in Wellington alone ready to lend a hand in any service suited to'their strength.

LABOR. The stories of impending labor troubles which were so prevalent at Christmas and New Year time, as they had been twelve months before, seem to have'been nothing more than the idle chatter of the holiday season. Negotiations concerning wages and conditions are still proceeding between certain sections of employers and workers, but they are K"ng conducted so quietly and with such ip.iarent goodwill on both sides that no Die is alarmed about the result. The credit for this reassuring state of affairs may be fairly divided between the masters and the. men, who have displayed an amount of forbearance that was not common among them a few years ago. In one of the Wcstport mine's the men are marking their dissatisfaction with a readjustment of conditions by "going slow," but'apart from this unfortunate incident the labor outlook is distinctly encouraging.