WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1918, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE LABOR POSITION. LITTLE WORK IN CITY. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, August 2G. The Labor Bureau reported on Saturday that there was little work offering for manual labor in the city, and that of twenty-two applicants' for employment who had left their names at the office during the previous week, only seven had been placed. To-day there is an improvement, and the officer in charge says he-could find employment for "a few farm hands and others." Against this, complaints are coming from the country that competent farm hands are unobtainable, and that even inexperienced men willing to learn are extremely difficult to get. No doubt the return of spring will create a better demand for labor in the city, where much outside work has been interrupted or stopped altogether by the continuous wet weather; but this will only accentuate the troubles of the farmers, who, mainly through the disinclination of young men to go into the country, rarely can find the number of men they could profitably employ. THE NATIONAL PROHIBITION POLL. Though it may not have been exactly politic for. a leader of the prohibition movement jto announce that in the event of a proposal to place the three issues of continuance, prohibition and State control on the ballot paper, without proriding for preferential voting, his party would at once start an agitation for prohibition without compensation on a bare majority vote, but it is only natural that there should be a very strong protest against any attempt to divide the friends of prohibition and State control against one another, and thus ensure the carrying of continuance. Many electors in favor of State control, so a member of the prohibition party says to-day, while giving their first vote to their own particular remedy for the evils of the drink traffic, would give their second to prohibition, and ensure it being counted against continuance. Probably there are many other State eontrollists who would prefer continue ance to prohibition, but the friends of the latter issue evidently think a majority of the "middle-coursers" would be on their side if unable to obtain precisely what they wanted.

MINERS AND MINE-OWNERS. The decision of the Government to appi'int a Royal Commission to inquire into tJie dispute between the miners and f !;e miner-owners has relieved the tension for the moment, but till after the owners' meotinpr here on Wednesday it will be impossible to say whether or not it will lead to an amicable settlement between the parties. Were it not for Ithe war, probably the owners would rclv upon the existing agreements to justify their refusal to meet the men under any conditions, but the importance of preserving industrial peace in the present crisis may induce them to reconsider their attitude. It is understood that several members of the Cabinet were inclined towards more drastic action in the mattor, involving the I assumption of the control of the mines by the State; but in the absence of Mr. ?{assey and Sir Joseph Ward, whom, it would appear from this morning's cables, cannot be expected to return before the very end of next month, a majority of the' Ministers were opposed to this step.