WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1918, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MINERS' OOiIWEIRiEOTJ. . HRICE OF COAL, (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, June 17. The announcement on Saturday to the effect that the Hon. W D. S. MacDonald had arranged a conference between the mine-owners and their employees for the consideration of various matters in dispute was a little premature- The men have ibeen seeking such a conference for some months and the Minister is anxious to bring the parties together for an exchange of views; hut the employers are disposed to stand upon their dignity and an existing industrial agreement which still has some time to run. The men want hetter pay and hetter conditions, and the mineowners would not he averse to making some concessions in these directions if they could count upon being allowed to pass on the additional cost to the public. But Mr Mac Donald contends that the price of coal already is high, enough to cover all the legitimate demands of the men and that the parties will have to settle their differences without putting any further "burden upon the consumers. Being an eminently practical man he wants to have this point clearly understood by both sides (before the negotiations begin. Hence the delay in fixing a date for the meeting of the conference. STATE ECTTOTENCY. A very strong indictment of the Government's attempts to promote national efficiency has been launched by the Wellington Trade and Labor Council, and is receiving the endorsement of, many business men and others who are not always i n sympathy with the views enunciated by that body. The council selects as particularly "horrid" examples of the Government's failure to handle the situation intelligently, its curtailment of railway services and its reduction of post and telegraph facilities. The Minister, it says, has stopped race trains withoiit stopping race?, and iby this farclal proceeding has added enormously to the cost of transit. As with the railways, so with the post and telegraph offices. Loss and inconvenience have been thrust upon. the public without bringing a penny of real saving to the State. "The efficiency so far practised by the departments," to quote the council's own words, 'Huts not succeeded in doing anything useful and has thrown discredit upon the State as to its methods and (business management." The worst tiling about this indictment is the justification it finds in the policy of both departments. MILITARY PRISONERS. Though the Minister of Defence does not credit the stories that are in circulation concerning the treatment of the men confined in the Wanganui Detention Barracks he is havin* an official investigation made jnto the management and methods of the establishment, and it will not be surprising if certain changes are made in the personnel of the staff. The (barracks are popularly known as the Wanyanui military gaol and some circumstantial statements in regard to the/treatment of prisoners have been forwarded to the Minister of Justice under the impression that the place was within his jurisdiction; but this is not the case, and people who have sought the intervention of Mr Wilford should at once address themselves to Sir James Allen if they think they can be of any assistance in getting at the truth, gome of the stories are so disquieting thai not a moment should be lost by the Minister i n ascertaining the facts and dealing with any abuses that have arisen.