WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE SHIPPING DEAL DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, Juno 18. Though the absorption of the Union Company by the P. and 0. Company is not being criticised in Wellington with the same personal interest as it is in Dunedin it is being freely discussed by local busness men and. politicians. The general.feeling is one of regret that an institution, which on the whole has played its part in the development of New Zealand uncommonly well, should be losing its independent existence and passing under the control of a great corporation that may have no intimate concern for the welfare of the country and the needs of its people. Certain persons who profess to know all about the nature of the transaction, do not hesitate to criticise the "deal" in the most scathing terms, but whether their language h justified or not it would be premature to set it down here. DISSIPATED HOPES. The advocation of a State steamer service between all the ports of the Dominion, which, they believe iwiould have effected an enormous saving in the cost of living while yielding a handsome profit to the Treasury, see in the acquisition of the Union Company's business by a "foreign" .organisation the final dissipation of their hopes. They fear that the P. and 0. Company with its enormous capital and wide-spread influence will prove too stiff a proposition for any Government to tackle and that with its arrival in New Zealand all prospect even of a State ferry service between Wellington and Lyttelton, which ■was to be the beginning of a great State undertaking, will disappear. Just why 'this is to be the case it is not easy to understand, but the advocates of State enterprise refuse to be consoled by reminders of the omnipotence of the people through their representatives in Parliament. i MINISTERIAL ACTION. That the matter has been discussed by the Cabinet everyone knows, but exactly what is the attitude of Ministers towards the absorption no one can say. Of course, there are rumors in abundance. One of thes,a, which is given by the gossips tho imprimatur of the very best authority and eeeiss as likely to be well-founded as any of the rest, declares that the members of the Cabinet are sharply divided in their views and could agree only on postponing the discussion of the matter till the return of Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward. m.c. Russell is represented as tlje leader of the opposition to the proposal to accept the arrangement as inevitable and judging from one or two interviews he has given the newspapers ho is not being maligned. •&$ INTERESTING SITUATION. ' But the story does not depict the Minister of Internal Affairs as stanr"ng alone in his protest against what the shipping companies are doing. It is assumed jfliat the other Liberal members of the Cabinet are supporting lym and it is even whispered that the Acting-Prime Minister is not favorably disposed towards tlu> fusion. What Mr. Massey, and Sir Joseph Ward will have to say about the matter no one ventures to predict, but it is poißted out that thoy roust have known before they left London something of the nature of the negotiations that were going on between the two companies and have had some idea of their probable outcome. If this is the case and their approval has •been given to the extinction of the local company fl very pretty situation may develop when they take their seats at the Cabinet table.