WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1917, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SECOND DIVISION. THE MINISTERIAL ATTITUDE. (Our Parliamentary Reporter)'. 'Wellington, Sept.;i24. '•■ Unless the proposals of the Government are framed on just and liberal lines the Government must face the prospect) of a, severe rebuff." This is what the Dominion had to say on SaturJay concerning the demands of the members of the Second Division for adequate pensions for themselves and sufficient allowances for their dependents, and it expresses the opinion of most people who are in a position to judge of the temper of the- House of 'Representatives. A majority of the members of the House are pledged, more or less directly, to support the underlying principles of the Second Division's demands, and if the Government attempts to put them off with any Cheese-paring scheme it will meet with a good deal more determined opposition than it lias yet encountered. It is being deducted from the 'Prime Minister's allusion in the House last week to an increase of some £700.000 in the estimates that an addition of 12s or 15s a (veek to the wife's separation allowance is all the Government has in contemplation. and this certainly would satisfy neither the members of the Second Division nor their representatives in Parliament.

IN AN HEROIC MOOD. The House lias accepted witli such grace as it could muster the dicli:::i of the Government in regard to other fL»» Aneia 1 matters. It has consented to expenditure it has not understood and it has confirmed taxation it has not approved. But it is going to have a mind of its own on the provision that should be made for soldiers' dependents. "If we can find £400,000 or £500,000 a year to provide bonuses for civil servant's on Recount of the increased cost of living, v one member puts it. "surely we can find three or four times that amount, if needs be, to lessen the sacrifices we are demanding from the wives and children of tho men we are sending away to discharge the obligations of our country." This expresses the new spirit that "is pervading the House, not, it is only fair to say, as a result of any pressure .hat may have been brought to bear upon members by the Second Division L«ague, but rather as the result of a better understanding of the position.

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE. Mr. C. J. Parr, the member for Eden, who returned from his trip Home with the parliamentary party in a somewhat disgruntled frame of mind, initiated adiscussion in the House on Friday afternoon on the High Commissioner's Office which took a turn he scarcely can have expected. His objections to the office were that it had become ' Anglicised," that there many elderly gentlemen engaged there and that it was not sufficiently in touch with Mew Zealand. The Hon. D Buddo agreed with Mr. Parr as to the advisability of appointing young New Zealanders „o the office whenever feasible, and Dr. Tlmcker suggested that preference should be given to wounded soldiers, but the half dozen speakers that followed, including the Hon. C. W. Russell, bore high testimony to the excellent work done by Sir Thomas Mackenzie and his staff, Mr. C H. Poole paying a specially appreciative tribute to Mr. Donne. The High Commissioner himself would have listened to tho discussion with very considerable personal gratification.

PUBLIC SERVICE CONTROL It is not so very long ago •. ~t the control of the public service was a hone of very serious contention between the political parties, the Liberals standing for ministerial responsibility and the Reformers for commissioner supremacy, and members of the House were reminded of the former strife on Friday night, by Mr. Witty asking the Minister of Internal Affairs when the commissioners' term of office would expire. Mr. Russell, who before the party truce was one Df the foremost champions of ministerial responsibility, in the course of his reply referred in such commendatory terms to the good work done by the commissioners that Mr. McCallum was moved to object to the Minister "attacking the Liberal Pary." Mr. Russell retorted in kind, but it appeared when his remarks were summed up that his appreciation of the commissioners rested mainly on the fact that they had relieved\Ministers of a vast amount of disagreeable work and loft them free to attend to their more important duties. He wished to make no refleeions upon the methods that had preceded their appointment.

RESTRICTION OF HOTEL HOURS. It was expected that the Bill restricting hotel hours, which passed through the House last week with such sensational developments, would make its appearance in the Legislative Council tomorrow, assured of a favorable reception from a majority of the members of the revising chamber; but the Prime Minister's promise to a deputation of licensees that waited upon him on Friday that the measure would be referred to the Statutes Revision Committee may delay it's further progress for a day cr two. There is no probability of the essential provision of the Bill being modified, but it is possible in view of the facts placed before Mr. Massey by the deputation that an effort may be made to grant licensees who happen to be owners of the houses they occupy some measure of' relief. It is difficulty to see how this' is to be done without introducing the element of compensation, but it is certain that without some provision of the kind individual owners will find themselves iu very sore financial straits.