WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1918, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE- COAL DISPUTE. < j MINERS' REPLY - Tb®OVWS®RSr, i . . i*; ( ! ■ ■'( , (Special Correspondent.) «/j Wellington, August* 2. i The reply of the Miners' Federation the recent statement of the Muist'OWS*-* ers' Association reaks little fresi ground. It reiterates the assertion that the increase in the cost of living' has far exceeded the advance ill wages, and challenges the association's conten*,, tion .that the miners might largely increase their earnings by a closer application to work. On the latter point,-/ statements made by the Hon. W. D. $. 5 Mac Donald, the Minister of Mines, arid.,! the Hon. A. M. Myers, the Minister of Munitions and Supplies, are quoted for i the purpose of refuting the assumptions »f the owners. Mr. Mac Donald haS ; shown there had been a substantial Op erease in the output of coal per maft ' since the commencement of the war, «•"■? ,J Mr. Myers had pi ictically confirmed i figures of his colleague. So far, in this > particular, the men appear to weight of evidence on their side. THE COST OP LIVING. ' )

But the Miners' Federation seeks-to J concentrate attention upon the relation . J between the increase in the cost of Kv- 1 ing and the advance in wages. It i$ demanding a further 20 per cent, ad* ;j vance in wages, which the association' says is not justifiable, because tlie present pay "is not commensurate with ■„ the increased cost of the upkeep of their j labor power." The only official flgttrcs that throw any light upon the point are i thoso prepared by the Government St&- ■ tistician and published in the Abstract ' of Statistics. These show that in the ' three food groups prices in Graymouth, i which may be taken as typical of the ! prices in other mining districts,' ad' vanced f1?43 per cent, during the first \ year of the war, rose to 11.57 per cent in the second year, to 18.59 per cenl. in the third, and to 28.45 per cent, in the fourth. Here, again, the facts, so far as they go, seem to bo on the side of the men and to make out a good case for inquiry. SHIPPING PROFITS.

• A letter from Mr, James FindlAy, the chairman of the New Zealand Overseas' Ship-owners' Committee, read at the Farmers' Union Conference yesterday, (lid not satisfy members of that body who had been complaining of "exorbit-' ant freights and charges" that the far= mers were getting a "square deal" from ' the authorities. Mr. Findlay had lto- 1 thing to say on the subject that was very new. He stated, quite truly, of course, that the Imperial Government • had requisitioned all the steamers trading to New Zealand and Australia, paying the owners what it thought fit for their use, and had assumed absolute con- ! trol of rates of freight and But this did not appease the dissatisfied farmers. They wanted to knowhow the shipping companies came to be making profits of 25 per cent, and more under the arrangement with the Im* perial authorities, and why there had been an increase of 50 per cent, in freights. And there was no one to an' swer them,

ESCAPE PROM SOMES ISLAND. Disagreeable rumors are in circulation concerning the escape of German prisonera from Somes Island, and if one-half of them should prove to be ■well-founded someone will have to be sharply called to account. The general impression among the public i 3 that the prisoners • on the island have been allowed a great deal toomuch liberty, and, though an error in this direction might not be expected to drive any of them to the despemts enterprise undertaken the other iugMj;" that many of them are unable to appre- , iciate the spirit of the "British way." They take kindness and consideration :as signs of weakness, and imagine, they ' ' are not forced to labor during the day I and locked in barred cells at niglrt bw a [cause the authorities fear reprisals.Probably a little severer discipline op ' the island would produce a better atmosphere about the place. '

THE CHIEF JUSTICE ON COMPENSATION. His long association with controversial politics has left Sir Robert Stout a little prone in his private capacity to wander beyond the fields of discus-;, sion occupants of the Supreme Court Bench usually permit themselves, and his intimate friends were not surprised to hear of his expressing 'his views on the question of compensation to the', liquor trade in an address lie de-r ilivered at the Unitarian Church on Mon-; jday night. Some of his .critics, however, profess to be extremely indignant !at the Chief Justice prejudging a principle he may be called upon to interpret, from the Bench or to administer as a, member of the special court the Effi-' ciency Board proposes should be set up to determine the landlords' and the .licensees' interests in the houses they [control. The position certainly doe? seem a little anomalous, but it is t»' • Sir Bobert's credit that none of the : ; criticism being levelled against him implies that liis sympathy with the prohibition movement would influence fainy in the discharge of his judicial -

THE PROHIBITIONISTS' ATTITUDE." The prohibitionists, very naturally, after the Chief Justice's scathing condemnation of the principle of compensation, are anxious to make it widelyknown that they are tolerating th®' principle merely as a means towards the end they are seeking—national pro- , hibition. They ihave been asking for 1 years past with Sir Robert and the rest of their allies, "why those who are injuring the State should be com--,' pensated for. losing their opportunity to - do so," but they realise they would: have no chanea of reaching their goal-; ■ at tta present juncture without the (wsistance of those electors who maintaia that the community itself is responsible for the existence of the liquor trade and that the cost of its extinction should not be thrown solely upon ■the people who happen to he engaged in it at the moment. ■ Their attitude may not be very heroic, as they adnflt i themselves, but some concession to deeply, rooted vested interests is the price-they arp ready to pay for- gucceas.