WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1919, Page 7

WELLINGTON NOTES.

— j i PUBLIC WORKS. BUPPLY OF LABOR. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 24. The Minister of Public Works has been excusing himself for not pushing on hydro-electric schemes and other development works authorised by Parliament with the plea that he is unable to obtain the necessary labor for these undertakings. He has plenty of money, he has told several impatient deputations from the districts specially affected by the delay, but lie cannot obtain the men. Mr. J. A. Nash, the Mayor of Palmerston North, however, is not accepting this explauation in the case of the Mangahao hydro-electric scheme. He lias made a definite offer to find the men required to undertake the initial work in connection with this 3cheme, and has suggested that the New Zealand Tunnelling Corps, which did such splendid work during the war, should be induced to remain in the service of the State for undertakings of this description. A SEASONABLE SUGGESTION. Mr. Nash, who in addition to being Mayor of Palmerston North is member for the district in which the borough stands, is willing to make his word good at once, and no doubt Sir William Fraser will he glad enough to have his assistance in obtaining the men he requires. Labor has been his difficulty since the beginning of the war, and though he accentuated it to a- certain extent by fixing too low a maximum wage he has since repented of that mistake and is now offering a rate that should attract suitable Iftbor. The suggestion ithat the members of the Tunnelling Corps should be employed upon hydro-electric works follows upon the admission of the chief electrical engineer that the scarcity of skilled tunnellers was the chief obstacle to the speedy prosecution of his proposals. A NON-POLITICAL BOARD. The formation of "progress leagues" and "development leagues" in various parts of the South Island, largely, it would seem, for the purpose of bringing pressure upon the Government in the expenditure of public money, has revived the proposal for the establishment of a non-political board to determine the allocation of public works expenditure. It is maintained that such a board, while listening to any representations that might he made to it from any particular district, would not be subject to the "squeezing" that is always applied to Ministers by members of Parliament and their constituents when the public works estimates are being prepared. The board, it is also contended, would be able to put a stop to the shockingly wasteful practice of keeping a dozen scraps of railway progressing at the rate of a mile or two a year and eating their heads off in the way of interest before they are completed. PARTY POLITICS. : The announcement, telegraphed from Auckland, that the Prime Minister is likely to be opposed by the organising secretary of the Franklin branch of the Farmers' Union at the next general election has not occasioned much perturbation in official Reform circles here. As a matter of fact the Reformers, taking a somewhat less quixotic view of the party truce than Sir Joseph Ward and hia Liberal colleagues in the National Cabinet do, arr> much better organised than the Liberals are, and they have no fear of Mr. Massey being disturbed in his representation of Franklin, if he should choose to seek re-election for that constituency. The "if," they explain,. is used in deference to the stories that are flying about, not on account of any hint they have received from the Prime Minister himself.