WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE NATIONAL SPORT. ' A WEEK OE CONFERENCES. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, July 12. Whether it is the Racing Conferences in Wellington that have been sandwiched in between the racing at Trent- '" Mii or the racing at Trentham between Racing Conference in Wellington those in the confidence of the people immediately concerned can say, init that the "Turf Parliaments" have been busy in the capital city this week is plain for every newspaper reader to see. The Racing Conference, the "Mother'' of these Parliaments, has Ibeen telliiig the public that the maintenance of the national sport during the w»r is a '■ixitiMlen duty," the Trotting Conference has been declaring that the horses its activities are producing are a very important factor in winning the war, and the Country Clubs' Conference has been proclaiming its readiness to do every good thing the other two bodies have left undone. And there can be no doubt the sport, whether galloping or trotting, will be all the better and cleaner for the deliberations of the representatives and that Wellington has been entertaining a number of shrewd gentlemen it would bo glad to welcome into the wide political sphere. OPENING UP THE COUNTRY. Mr R. W. Smith, the member for Waimarine, and Mr W. T. Jennings, the member for Tauinarunui, two of many legislators whose efforts on behalf of their constituents are not confined to the session of Parliament, introduced a large deputation to the Minister of Public Works and the Minister of Justice yesterday with a request, that the Government would not allow the vital necessities of the war to overshadow altogether the crying needs of the backblock settlers. The.Waimarino and Taumarunui districts were discovered, so to speak, scarcely more than a decade ago, and yet the settlement within their borders has outrun all the original facilities for transit. During the last four years, as Mr Laird, the Mayor of Taumamnui and a member of the deputation, very pointedly reminded the Ministers, tho districts have been living on promises and now have reached a point at which they must have more substantial fare. Jn the circumstances the association of Works and Justice was a very happy idea and though Sir William Fraser was characteristically guarded in his reply to the deputation* he did not send it away entirely empty. AN OLD TROUBLE. Wellington is again in the throes of a milk shortage, which the papers say has reached an acute position and which the doctors know to be a grave menace to public health and a positive danger to infant life. The Mayor attributes the trouble to the reduced train service, the demands of the military camps and the number of marble bars in the city, which "in spite of the cold weather" continue to dispense drinks in which milk is the chief constituent. "To my mind," Mr Luke tells üb, "pressure must be brought to bear upon the railway authorities to so adjust matters in connection with the city milk supply as to ensure that the quantity required shall' bo available." Wellington has heard all this before and is becoming a little impatient. Pressure upon the railway authorities in these days is just about as.effective as (he proverbial soft head against tho brick wall. Such pressure as the citizens may be able to exercise would be better employed upon the City Council, which has been discussing this problem for a dozen years and still seems I as far from from its solution as ever. But the acute position will pass and Wellington will again muddle along. AFFAIRS OF THE EMPIRE. Before concluding its annual conference on Wednesday the New Zealand Labor Party, which, it seems necessary to iterate and reiterate, speaks with less authority than its title implies, busied itself with some of the big affairs of the Empire. It adopted a pronouncment "that under no circumstances shall Samoa hold up the arrangements for peace," and another to the effect that the Conference in conjunction with other Labor organisations shall take steps for the- election of a peace delegate to Europe to represent the Labor movement of New Zealand. There is much sympathy from every other section of tiie community for organised labor in it a desire for a lasting peace, and it may be taken for granted that no trivial matter will bo allowed to "hold up" the arrangements towards that end; but the prospect of a delegate being sent to Europe by the Party Conference to represent the Labor movement of New Zealand is regarded as a bit of a jest by the great majority of the workers and probably would be viewed in a more serious lifiht bv the constituted authorities.