WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TRIBUTES TO MR. SEBDON.

THIRTEENTH ANNIVERSARY.

(Special Correspondent.) Wellington, To-morrow will he the thirteenth asai< versary of the death of the Right, ana. R. J. Seddon, and the occa&ion will In marked by a number of private semi-public tributes to the memory of the great statesman. A memorial committee, consisting chiefly of people, who recognise they owe much to Mr'. Seddon's concern for fh«ir welfare, has invited the Hon. W. D. 6. M»«IV. r «H to place a wreath on the Seddon statue in the grounds at Parliament Bußdingg, and other silent tributes of the wot kind will be offered in other parts of the city. This recognition of the do* ceased leader's services to the Domhtta} and the Empire has no party dot pofitfy cal significance, but it is felt tha absence of Mra. Seddon and Ml— 3tag| Seddon, who ate on a visit to provides a special reason for the intimate observance of the anmvaxaiwby - their friends.

PERIPATETIC MINISTERS. One sign of the approaching election, . which cannot be delayed beyond the end of the year and may take place in tha course of a few months, is the activity of Ministers on both sides of polttksThero is more "naming tip and down the country'' now—to say nothing of trips to London—than ever vrasthe ease in the days when "constant absence from Wellington" was being denounced as one of the most heinous offences of certain energetic members of the Cabinet. Happily no reproach of this kind ia thrown about in these times, and no doubt the country is reaping modi advantage from the Ministers' travels, while the capital, to all appearamn, is suffering little from their perambulation. WAR TROPHIES.

Speaking at Ashburton last week the Hon. G. W. Russell, the Minister of Internal Affairs, proniised the good people of the wheat metropolis that if they would send an application through him for u share of the war trophies coming to New Zealand he would see that it waa forwarded to the Minister of Defence, and that they obtained a representative collection of these tangible fruits of victory. How many promises of the easne kind have been made by Mr. Russell and other Ministers and members of Parliament it is impossible to trace, but if they are all to be discharged two or three fair-sized ships-will be required to carry the scrap iron and other things to the Dominion. Several of the provincial towns of the North Island are demanding tin: I; they shonld be at least as weii treated as Ashburton.

NEW ZEALAND BANKING,

A leading financial authority referring this morning to the criticism of the large profit made by the Bank of New Zealand last year claimed that a great deal of credit was due to the banks for the manner in which they had conducted their business during the war. Whatever commercial men nnd tradesmen had done, the banks, at any Tate, had not been guiltv ol' profiteering. The.v had stood by the country nnd by their customers loyally, and bv example and precept had given vast assistance in preserving the financial equilibrium throughout an extremely trying period. Bank rates had been kept down to pre-war rates, while mortgage rates had materially increased, and bankers had considered the public in everv way. They had done their "little bit" admirably.