WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1919, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

REDUCED RAILWAY SERVICE. DRASTIC CUT. (From Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, July 2. Now that the coal-saving time-table is in cold type the (public in general and business people in particular are beginning to realise what it really means. Not that they failed to understand the drastic nature of the ''cut" before. The last express train for Auckland under the old time-table left here yesterday and scores of would-be passengers who had omitted to book their seats in advance found themselves relentlessly excluded from the platform. To-day many of them began the tedious three days' journey to the northern eity. They will spend to-night at Palmeraton North, to-morrow night at Taumarunui and, if all goes well with the arrangements, arrive in Auckland on Friday evening. The mails will travel no faster ,and such goods' as are carried at all no slower. The through trip will occupy 52 hours Smin's., as against 17 hours 53mhis., under the old time-table, and it will be no consolation to the man in a hurry to know that 23 hours 64mins. of the additional time will be spent waiting at wayside stations.

THE NEED, Of course there is grumbling in abundance and some questioning of the necessity for the step that has been taken. It seems fairly clear, however, that it would have been impossible foi the Railway Department to continue the full services without running a very grave risk of having to stop all services before the end of next week. In a statement the Minister has furnished to his colleagues he sets out that the weekly consumption of coal by the railways is 5000 tons, that the supply yesterday was sufficient to carry on the full service for only nine or ten days, that the coal in sight up to the second week in August iB only 9000 tons, that it is hoped to reduce the consumption by at least one-half and that the Government is doing its best to obtain Bhips and coal at the earliest possible moment. In face of these facts it is useless to kick against the. necessity that has arisen. Till relief comes through the ending of the strike in Australia the public must (possess their souls with sucih patience as they may.

MINISTER OF MINES SPEAKS OUT.

While the Minister of Eailways has had the burdens of his own Department upon his shoulders, the Hon. W D. S. MacDoiuild, the Minister of Mines, aiid the Hon. A, Myers, the Minister of Supplies, have been at tlieir wits' cud to satisfy the industrial and domestic demand for coal. Both Ministers havo shown that everything possible has been done to keep the wheels going round and the home fires burning, and yet there are disgruntled people blaming them both for what is happening. In a statement he issued yc.terday, Mr. Mac Donald meets one sample of this ingratitude with characteristic candour. "It has been alleged," he says, "that there is plenty of coal at thj} coal ports on the West Coast and that vessels are available to transport it, but the Government won't put the ships on because Uhey want to discredit Labor. The allegation is an absolute and deliberate lie." The emphasis the Minister imparted to his language is excused by the character of the fabrication and it ought to assist in putting a stop to the circulation of stories of a similar type.

THE PARTY LEADERS. One of the curious jibes being levelled against Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward just now is that they have fixed the official peace celebrations for August 3, 4 and 5, 'm order that they may be here themselves and bask in the lime-light that will he inevitable and proper to the occasion. Of course they have had nothing to do with the selection of the dates of the celebrations and it is by no means certain they will he here in the early days of next month. If they should be they naturally would ba prominent figures in whatever public functions may be decided upon, but they would not necessarily divert any of the lime-light from the Ministers who have remained behind, or from the Mayor or from ani of the other local dignatories. One might suppose, indeed, that after their experiences of the last five or six months their bent would be rather towards a little seclusion than towards a further flood of publicity.

THE SOLDIERS AND THE LAND.

PRELIMINARY TRAINING.

Wellington, July 4. The Minister of Lands and his colleagues have good reason to be disappointed by the very poor success, that has attended their eiiorts .to induce returned .soldiers to enter upon a course of tvi'ini.iT in rural pursuits preparatory to taking up land on their own account. How poor this success has been may be judged from a letter addressed by the Hon. D. H. Guthrie yesterdav to a leading business man in Wellington who, unaware of what the Government was doing in this direction, had urged the Minister to set aside suitable blocks of land on which soldiers mifrht be employed and obtain some rudimentary knowledge of agricultural operations. The fact that this gentleman did not know of the Government's efforts may suggest one reason why thev have not been more successful.

SCHOOL AND NO PUPILS, The / soldiers themselves, however, have Had particulars of these training farms placed .before them again and again and ,their failure to respond in much i>:reater..ininnljer3 to the Minister's invitation is simply inexplicable. "Somenreus alreadv have., been set apart for training on the lines suggested by you," Mr. Guthrie explains to his correspondent, "and it is intended to operate them when the Boldiera .show the inclination to submit to the training. So far, however, the response has not been sufficient to warrant putting the work in hand. T may say also that one estate in Canterbury was offered to the IVt.vintic Society, which advertised for soldiers to train, hut could not get them." *Tbe Minister's corresponds* thinks this an astounding state ol affairs and is anxious to know what the returned soldiers have to say about the matter. MINING AND MINERS. The Coal .Mine Owners' Association concluded its sitting here yesterday without making any of its major conclusions public. It has agreed to meet the representatives of the Coal Miners'

Federation, after the individual companies have had sufficient opportunity !« consider the effect of the demands made by the inen, and it baa suggested that the conference between the parties should be open to tho preaa. While wnitinar for further developments public opinion certainly is inclining more to the ownerß' side than it has done be* .fore. The men's demands that only one shift shall be worked during the twentyfour hours and that no shift shall work longer than Beven hours, bank to bank, are not of a kind to find favour with a community in the throes of a coal famine. The owners, on the other hand, are showing a sweet spirit of reasonableness which has gone far to win for them the sympathy of the "crowd."

OOST OF LIVING. A table published by the Dominion this morning comnaring* the retail prices of August 1900 w.tli those of July 1919 lias set people talking again of the coat of living in terms by no means complimentary to the authorities who are supposed to control. suoh matters. Bread during the interval of thirteen years has advanced from 3d to 5d per 21b. loaf, iam from 4d to 6fd per 1b.., oatmeal from 19 to 2a 7Jd per 71b. bag, kerosene from 4 S to fls per tin, bacon from 5Jd to Is Id per lb. (the cheapest cuts), coal from 7s fid to 15s ifter quarter ton, fish'from 2d to 'Bd, Sd and la per lb. and many other articles of daily use in the satae proportion. There is a growing feeling among the public, as the shoe pinches harder, that the Government is largely responsible for these increases and that the Board of Trade has utterly failed to alleviate the position.