WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

FARMERS', POLITICAL PARTY. FIXING PRICES. (Special Correspondent) Wellington, March 17SY'We prominence is given by the local papers to the determination of the Waikate branch of the Farmers' Union to ■Join the Farmers' Political Party, but no one seems to exactly understand the significance of the movement. The general feeling among city electors la that the National Government has treated the farmers uncommonly well and that its disposition in fixing prices lias not been to squeeze the producer, but to exploit the consumer. This, however, is a question on which the producer will have hi- own opmiun and at Lite moment public curiosity is centred mainly upon hi* attitude towards the existing parties. It has been assumed in the past that the leanmg of a majority of the members of the Farmers' Union was towards the Reformers, but apparently the criticism of the Waikato branch is directed against the administration of departments in which Reform influences are dominant.

THE MEN ON THE LAND. Bui whatever may be the relations of the Farmers' Political Party with the Reformers or the Liberals it is quite likely to be a live force at the next senern! "lection. Its stronghold will be in the constituencies north of Wei-Imp-ton. where the increase of population is going on as rapidly as ever and Where there is much dissatisfaction with the Public Works Department and the. Native Lands Department. Sir William Frnser in particular seems to have failed entirely to grasp the needs and the potentialities of this vast district anil to have in view no adequate measure* for its profitable development. The men who are leading the revolt against his methods are not seeking to deprive the South Island of any part of its Public Works rote, indeed thev want n general policy of expansion all along the line, hut. they aro determined to keep on kicking nnd kicking hard, till they get some recognition of what tliev regard as their just, rights. THE LABOR PARTY.

The Hon. J, T. Paul, the president of the New Zealand Labor Party, who arrived here on Saturday and is proceeding to Auckland to-day. professes to bs well pleased with the prospects of Labor at the approaching election He says that the party is progressing everywhere, in spite of the almost unanimous opposition of the daily press, Rn <! that many of its recruits are coming from what previously was regarded "as the le-ist progressive of the old political parties. H. 3 attributes this not merely to dissent from ihe National Government's war policy, hut to the failure of the T.iiherals and the Reformers, both when fighting one another and when in coalition, to fulfill any of their more important promises to the electors. The weakness of Mr Paul's ease for the Labor Party is its lack of a constructive policy At present he and iiis, colleagues arc appealing to the decora solely on the sins of omission nt'd commission of the other parties,

TFIK LTQUOn FIGHT. The quietness of the contending partip? in the liquor light was. it appear*, only the calm that proceed* the storm. Within the last day or two Ihe city has been flooded with "literature" from bof.lt sides, and last night a gnat, roily, which overflowed from the Town Hall to the concert chamber and thence to the street, was held. The speakers of ihe evening were the Rev. Father Gronin, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and th> other Mr Charles Todd, a prominent Catholic layman. Probably the immense audience was due largely to the fact of these gentlemen not being in agreement with their Bishops on the question in dispute. Anyway they proved very eloquent advocates of prohibition. Hut ju=t how far till this expenditure of energy and money is goins to nfleet the poil remains to be seen- Apparently the speakers on both sides are addressing, in the main, people of theiv own wav of thmkin? who, like the righteous man in the Scriptures, needs no repentance.