WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1919, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

RAILWAY WORKERS. IMPROVED CONDITIONS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, April 2. Railwayman all over the country are expressing satisfaction at the concessions made to them by the management as the result of the recent negotiations. The president of the Railway Servants' Executive says the men have not got all they expected, but admits their position lias been vastly improved. The war bonus of 3s a day has been made a permanent addition to their wages, with an eight-hours day and overtime payment at the rate of time and a quarter between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. If they expected more they were sanguine indee'd. The concessions following on the pronouncement of the president of the Arbitration Court concerning the relation between wages and the coat of living arc thought to be the fore-runner to a general increase in the pay of civil servants. This may be the last big move of the National Government, i

THE JUDGE AND THE MINISTER. It was put about some time ago, by the way, that the Acting Minister of Trade and Commerce was preparing a statement in reply to Mr. Justice Stringer's implication that the Government had done nothing to stay the advance in the cost of living. The task would have been an extremely congenial one to the. Board of Trade. But if the Minister ever contemplated such an unusual proceeding, it is pretty safe to say he has abandoned the idea of inviting a judge of the Supreme Court to a political controversy fcmch a development would have been highly entertaining, no doubt, but it would have been irregular, and, in the eyes of many people, highly reprehensible. At the same time, if there is an answer to Mr. Justice Stringer's strictures it ought to be forthcoming in some shape. At present the public is assuming that there is no remedy for high prices, and is accepting their continuance as inevitable. MUNICIPAL POLITICS.

With a fourth candidate in the field the chances of the Labor nominee playing a prominent part in the contest for the mayoralty are still further improved. .Mr. Barber will not poll a great number ot votes, but those he does poll will be drawn from Mr. Luke and Mr. Weston, and not from Mr. Read. Mr. Bead's strong card, however, is the superior organisation of the Labor Party. Today the supporters of Mr. Luke and Mr. Weston are rushing all over the city in a last effort to get names on the roll. All Mr. Read's friends were registered a month ago. If every qualified person could be got to the poll orthodoxy would beat Labor by three or four to one; but without any inspiring leadership and without any effective organisation even a bigger majority on paper might be easily defeated by an enthusiastic and well-disciplined minority.

THE DAY. With little more than a week to go before the poll the parties in the liquor light are working with redoubled energy. Both sides are professing confidence and both are sparing no effort in the struggle for victory. The Moderates are building their hopes largely upon the poll of 1914, when there was a majority of some ten thousand odd in favor of continuance against prohibition. This they have persuaded themselves, was the turn of the tide which marked the revulsion of feeling from the big prohibition majority of three years before. But, the Prohibitionists retort, the vote of 1914 was a war vote, timid of change and of experiment, and did not represent the deliberate conviction of a majority of the people. Here again organisation and enthusiasm are going to be "Treat factors in the decision and in the" end may count for even more than the bisbattalions.