WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1919, Page 2

WELLINGTON NOTES.

y [wokks.; | •3 y 1 ;(Special Correspondent) 1 Wellington, Dec. 30. In antfcipatian of the early conclu®xou of peace, individuals and local bodies throughout. the country axe urging upon the Minister of PuMia Works the vigorous prosecution of a number of undertakings within the sphere of his department which were either "riowed down" or suspended altogether on account of the war. Sir William Praser is not forgetting his promise in connection with these undertakings and on the whole is meeting his petitioners very reasonably.. The question of money, he 6ays, is not troubling him so much as the question of labor. Sufficient funds have been provided for all urgent works, but the suply of men is still far below the requirements of the Department. The Minister does not expect any ntarked improvement in this respect for five or six months, as practically all the men capable of doing pick and shove] work are employed and their number is not likely to be materially increased till hale men begin to return from the iront in their thousands. OPEN CONFESSION.

The investigations set on foot during the influenza epidemic have brought Wellington to the confession that it is not so clean as it thought it was. For years it had pointed to the vital statistics and boasted of having a lower death rate than any other city in the Dominion. It gave )ao credit for this happy distinction to the cyclonic winds that tear through its streets and alleyways nor to the torrential rains that wash its surface dirt into the harbor. It was all due, according to the testimony of successive mayors and councillors, to the excellence of the municipal government. But the discoveries of the Health authorities and of many , unofficial workers during the epidemic revealed the city in all its naked sordidness. The present mayor and councillors fumed and protested for a time, but all to no purpose, and now have come to admit the plain facts. This is the re J pentance the citizens are hoping will lead on to reform.

OFFICIAL LABOR. Official Labor is continuing to congratulate itself upon the success of its candidates in tho Wellington Central and Wellington South by-elections. Its leaders axe talking much of the "signs of the time," the "writing on the wall" and the other portends they see in the return of one additional Labor member to Parliament. They, do not expect, it seems, to secure a majority at the next general election, but they hope to return a sufficient number of members to; the House of Reps, to place the balance of power in their hands—to be able, that is, to determine whether the Reformer? or the Liberals shall occupy the Treasury benches, and on what terms. But while talking in this fashion, they profess to believe the best thing that could happen for their party would be a permanent coalition between the two old parties and what they call a straight out light between capital and labor.

A SANER VIEW. That the rank and file of the Labor Party, using the title in a broad sense, are itching for a fight between capital and labor no one acquainted with the facts will believe. A gentleman unofficially but utill very closely associated with the Labor movement, referring to the subject this morning said the vast majority of the workers of the Dominion never were less inclined towards industrial strifo than they are to-day. What success they have achieved in the political arena has made them better disposed towards constitutional means and has displaced in Parliament men who instead of instigating them to fighting with the old barbarous weapons ( of the strike will induce them to put their trust in the ballot box. This view is endorsed by several prominent "firebrands" of a year or two ago and is not disclaimed by others of the same type Ivho still hesitate to subscribe to the policy of peaceful penetration.