WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

I CIVIC PROBLEMS. HEALTH AND CONVENIENCE./ 1 (From Our Special Correspondent)' Wellington, May 2L Apart from its claims as the political capital of the Dominion, it is peculiarly fitting that Wellington should have been selected as the meeting place for the Town-planning Conference opened here by the Governor-General yesterday. 'Probably no other large centre in New Zealand stands so much in need as Wellington does of civic perception and clvie inspiration. Town-planning it never has had. Its streets and buildings, services, and open spaces have happened along, so to speak, without co-operation and without co-ordination, and, in the sum, it must be rated, with all its natural advantages, among the least attractive of colonial cities. Its saving graces aje an exceptionally healthy climate and a splendid sewerage system, which, in combination, save it from what would be, in other circumstances, the penalties for its sins of commission and omission, and give it the lowest urban death-rate in the Dominion. It is to be hoped that the presence of the Town-planning Conference within its borders will awaken its people to a higher conception of their responsibilities. «»i, . SOLDIER-POLITICIAN, 'T'" The Minister of Internal Affairs is not the only politician who would be glad to see General Russell in Parliament, » lias been an open secret for months past that cortr in disgruntled members of the House of Representatives, popularly known us the New Party, have been looking to the General to lead them out of the winter of their discontent to the sun-lit portaJs of office. Just why jtis qualities as a statesman remained undiscovered till he became a, distinguished soldier has not been ejqtlained, but it is a fact that when he sailed away to the war only hie most intimate friends ever had thought of him in this connection. Endowed with a delightful personality, an extensive knowledge of affairs, and a progressive mind, he would make an admirable representative of any constituency, but unfortunately he has not come through his strenuous campaigning quite unscratched, and unless his health improves very much during the next few months he will not, it is safe to say, be taking part in the political fight we all are expecting before the end of the year. THE COST OF LIVING. An observant critic of the National Cabinet has described Mr. Malcolm Fraser, the very capable Government Statistician, who compiles the "Monthly Abstract of Statistics," with which the reading public is now fairly familiar, as the chief witness against its administration. This does not imply, of course, that Mr. Fraser is making any partisan use of his high office, but simply that the' figures he has presented month by month since the beginning of the wer show that the efforts of the Government up to the end of hut year to stay the advance in prices had signally failed. This being the case, the members, of the Cabinet and their political friends may tajce heart of grace from the fact that the number of the "Monthly Abstract" just issued indicates that the decline in the cost of food, at any rate, whUi began in January last has since been continuous. In July, 1914, the index figure in the three food groups was • 1070. By December, 1918, it had reached 1(103, but since then it has rapidly and regularly declined. In January it was WSS, in February 1522, and in March IWJ.AIt looks as if Mr. Fraser might yet be quoted as a witness for the defence. '"'