WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1918, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

HAILWAY SERVICES HOPES OF IMPROVEMENT. j(Spetial Correspondent.) Wellington, .'arc. 4. Mnnv people here are hiking Sir Joseph Ward's guarded statement jn regard to tlie resumption of ;■ more o--n----veniont train service between .Christchurch and i.yttelton as an indication 'bat the "cultins-down'" policy of the IViilwuy Department is going to be rev'sed. The discontinuance of ordinary excursion trains, though causing a serious monetary loss 1 to the State, has prolined no very vigorous protest from the general publie. 11 after all, only ii "Oii'punitively small proportion of tlie eommuniiy that takes a burning interest in shows ii ml race?. Rut during the holiday sea-'on thousand-, of people who previously 10.-.ked upon the Department's economies" with indifference have realised that they mean greatly, decreased traveliinir facilities as well as largely in-<TC-t?ed fare.-. The result is a Urge aee"s<s!'on 1c the rank- of the Minister's critics, a I'd a. feeling of uneasiness, so it is said, on the part of his colleagues. PENNY WISE, It has been whispered about for a long time that Mr. Massev and Sir -loseph Ward are bv no means satisfied by the results that have been obtained from tlie railways since the institution of the "cutting down" policy. Sir Joseph, everyone remembers, pursued quite an opposite policy when he was in charge of the Department, holding that the aim of ihe management to facilitate travelling'and encourage settlement, and Mr. Massev, though he never has administered this particular portfolio himself, has alwavs urged that the railways should be popularised with the object of making them nu.\\ If the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance should insist upon a reversion to these sound business principles, neither the Minister for Railways nor his responsible officers will have any occasion for complaint. Their experiment lias been tried long enough to involve tii" country in a very considerable loss, and to demonstrate beyond all question that high fares md inadequate services have nothing to recommend them cither as war measures or as aids to public morality. THE AUSTRALIAN REFERENDUM. A great deal of indignation has been aroused by tlie publication in The 'Dominion of extracts from a leaflet widely distributed in Australia during the recent conscription campaign,, purporting to show the effects of compulsory service in New Zealand. Probably before this the leaflet has been .seen in other centres in this country, and in any case one paragraph will be' sufficient to* indicate its character. "Well on towards five thousand of our young men." it runs, "are fugitives in their own country, or, maybe, some other country. They are pursued from place to place; they are hunted through the 'bills and tracked down in the towns."' This is one of the mildest of the gross misrepresentations contained in the leaflet Many of the ethers could not be printed without giving offence to every decent thinking person in the Dominion And this precious document was prepared by a resident in New Zealand, who poses as the leader of a school of political thought and employs such talents as lie possesses to vilifying the community that harbors,him. NATIONAL EDUCATION. The educational conferences that have been sitting in Wellington during the holiday season have got through a vast amount of very useful work, wbich will bear good fruit—after the war. When teachers meet in their "annual parliament, with tlie trials and experiences of the previous year fresh in their minds, thev assume a distinctly critical attitude towards traditional customs and regulations, and even towards the high heads of their Department, which is quite refreshing to their lay friends and doubtless to themselves. This year there has been no exception to the genera] rule. Evidently the more thoughtful members of the profession are still unsatisfied with many of the details of the national system of education and with much of its administration. Thev refuse to accept the system as the summit of perfection. and they continue to agitate with the truest loyaltv and patriotism for is improvement. The Minister and his responsible officers liave good reason to pay close and serious attention to the representations that have been made to them by the various conferences.