WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS. AN, AUSTRALIAN OPINION. (Special Correspondetn). i Wellington, Dec. 14. An Australian visitor occupying a responsble position in the Victorian Civil Service, who has just concluded an extensive tour of the Dominion, speaks in anything but. complimentary terms of the New Zealand railways. He is not so much concerned by the high fares and the limited service as he is by the lack of comfortand the tedium of travel. There is not a train running on a branch line in Victoria he says, that ia not superior in every way to any of fhe "expresses" on the Main Trunk lines of this country. The journey r from Wellington to Rotorua, which is represented by the New Zealand advertisements in Melbourne as a delight from beginning to e53, is a long drawn out torture to the weary traveller and the recollections of its trials overshadows every memory of the unique sights to be found at Rotorua itself. Everything, indeed, according to this authority, is wrong with the New Zealand railways, and nothing, in his opinion, short of complete reorganisation can save them from the disrepute into which they are drifting in the neighboring States. TBB AUSTRALIAN REFERENDUM. The same gentleman, probably speaking with a wider view of his subject, takes a less pessimistic view of the recruiting question in Australia than he does of the future of the New Zealand railways. He thinks the people of the Commonwealth as a whole are to-day realising their responsibilities to the Empire and the gravity of the military situation much more fully than, they were at the time of the previous conscription referendum. If there is any opinion to the contrary abroad it probably is duo to the fact that the "No" party, encouraged by its former success, is speaking its mind much more freely than it did last year. Both parties are now lighting'in the open and everyone knows where everyone else stands on the question, The effect of this is that no one is remaining in ignorance of the great issue at stake or hugging to himself the delusion that Australia can discharge its obligations without conscription. Then the chance of "Yes" being carried has beeu vastly improved by the modifications of the conditions of compulsory service. The visitor believes that on this occasion Australia will do its duty. MILITARY SUPPLIES. The Hon. A. M. Myers, whose responsibilities as Minister of Munitions and Supplies are scarcely less heavy than those of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Defence, and probably involve even more personal attention to'tire.?ome details, has his arrangements for meeting the requirements of the camps and the troopships next year well forward. A significant paragraph in the statement obtained from, him by the newspapers yesterday alluded to the difficulty he had encountered in obtaining tenders for certain supplies and indicated that in future hi? Department would not hesitate to do its own wholesale buying and importing and even manufacturing. It is in matters of this kind that Mr. Myers' wide commercial experience has proved particularly valuable to his colleagues and to the State. He had not been in office many months before he brought certain deluded manufacturers to their senses in a very salutary fashion and since then this branch of his administration has progressed smoothly enough, but now he is giving contractors to understand that iu the absence of competition he will test the market in a still more effective way. THE WHEAT DEAL. Dr. Cameron, the Director of -the Victorian Department of Agriculture, wlio has been visiting the Dominion mainly in wnnoctkm with an exchange of stud cattle between the Victorian an 3 New Zealand Governments, expressed greai surprise on being told that the Woii. fijl D. S. Mac Donald's wheat pureiinsc M' Australia had been severely critic'sc.gf grain merchants and others in the SiaCb Island. In his official capacity lu b*. something to do with the traiißacfl«; p and he is satisfied Mr. MncDonaVd i,<„,..• a very excellent bargain. At, file time of the New Zealand purchasr at ns 1 iut a bushel wheat was being sold to .lapm >ind South Africa under similar conditions at «s Gd a bushel. The suggestion that the Dominion should have had the wheat "at the same price as was being charged to the Mother Country was, !>•. Cameron said, simply absurd. The Mother Country took the whole crop at 4s 9d a bushel, bearing all costs and risks, and in the long win would pay at least as much as New Zealand