WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

COST OP LIVING. THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT, fecial Correspondent). .. -I • Wellington, Oct. 17. The report of the Cost of Living Com* mittce any not do a great deal towards the.reduction of retail prices, hut it scarcely' c«n fail to awaken a wider and more intelligent interest in the question of State control. The Committee's handy palliative for such exploitation as is going yn is the appointment of a Food Controller, with a seat in the Cabinet and with plenary powers to deal promptly with the exploiters; but its permanent cure for the evils arising out of unrestrieted- private trading is a combination of co-operalivo efforts and Stato ownership. The fact that the Prime Minister, as a member of the Committee, subscribed to this prescription is of little significance, as he appears to have done so with some mental reservation, but the. general; attitude of tho House towards the underlying principle of State control was distinctly impressive. THE PARTY LEADERS. Both Mr. Maswy and Sir Joseph Ward were at some disadvantage in criticising the Coninjittee's proposals. The Minister of Finance, in particular, burdened with the enormous responsibility of financing tho country through the war had to restrain the progressive impulses by which he doubtless would have been animated in different circumstances and to deprecate any experiment, that seemed at all likely to prejudicially affect his revenue. The Prime Minister, sharing his colleague's sense of responsibility and his concern for the primary producers, was even more urgent in his appeal to the House to venture upon no hazardous ground in such times as these. Between them the two Ministers prepared the way for Mr. McCombs' ill-natured gibe that the Government did not laok the power to deal with the cost of living, but had not the will to stop exploitation. THE NEED FOR ACTION. The members of the Committee, drawn from both sides of the House and fairly representing the urban and rural sentiments of the country, were practically unanimous in demanding some action for the relief of the unhappy consumer. The evidense placed before them ensured this being the case. As it happens the cost or living has mounted up in Wellington more persistently than it has in any other centre of -population, small or great, in the Dominion. Food commodities, with tho single exception of meat, are dearer in the capital city than they are in any remote town or hamlet in either Island, and house rents, in spite of all the legislation that has been promised and passed, are relatively higher. The lot of the wage-earner in Wellington is beyond question an extremely hard one and hundreds of him were ready to testify before the Committee to this effect. AVIIAT WILL BE DONE. The Committee was set up so lata in the session that it cannot bo blamed for its report being before tho House at a time when members who do not realise the gravity of the problem with which it hart to deal will be inclined to'leave the whole matter in tho untrammelled hands of the Government and get away to their homes. But apparently there are sufficient earnest men in the House, determined to get a hearing without regard to party, to compel Ministers to give practical effect to some of the Committee's proposals. The outcome may be tho appointment of a Food Controller, not necessarily with a seat in the Cabinet, to devote himself entirely to tho administration of tho legislation concerning the regulation of prices already on the Statute Book. Perhaps he may be in some way associated with the Board of Trade with limited plenary powers of his own. BOARD OF TRADE. Knowing what everyone does of the experiences of tho Board of Trade this arrangement could not be regarded as a very satisfactory one. The Board has done a vast amount of work which has been useful to Ministers and would have been valuable to the country had it been turned to its intended purpose. But it has been a purely advisory body with no power to give effect to its own recommendations and no means of commending them to the country or even to Parliament. A Food Controller placed in the same position, subject, that is, to the direction and veto of the Minister in charge of his Department, would be a little more expensive figure-head, but scarcely a less ineffective one It would be impossible, indeed, to get the right man to accept office under such condi-. tioons and the wrong man would be worse ti>an us; iess. ' ■ - ■ i i,m