WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1919, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

the railway cut. POPULAR INDIGNATION. (From Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, .Inly 9. Now that the effect of the railway "cut" is being fully realised, popular indignation is finding- more emphatic and indignant expression. People who a week ago were prepared to make the best of a bad job now are roundly denouncing the Minister, the late General Manager, the presenT General Manager, and everyone else closely or remotely connected with the administration of the Department. Business is being disorganised in every direction, they say, industries are being crippled, hundreds of men and women thrown out of employment and manj children prevented from attending school. But th» most serious indictment oftall is that the "cut" would have been wholly unnecessary had the authorities exercised even ordinary foresight and the prudence known as com-mon-sense. It is not merely the noisy irresponsible fault-finders that are talking in this fashion. They, of course, are making themselves heard. But sober, observant business men are joining in the chorus of denunciation and demand' ing the speedy termination of a system of management wliieli inflicts such calamities upon the country. COAL SUPPLY. ' A few days ago the New Zealand Times mentioned as a "significant fact" that while the railway services were being cut down to starvation point on account of the scarcity of coal, the coastal steamers, the tramways, the gasworks and the various factories in the city had all the coal they required, either pn liand or in sight. The accuracy of this statement was questioned at the time, but an enquiry has shown it to be substantially correct and has brought into prominence the further fact that under the War Regulations the Govern-1 /nent has power to commandeer for the use of the. railways any of the stocks of coal held by these municipal or private concerns. On the top of this comes a resolution from a public meeting held at Petone, where the coal question is as well understood as it is in anv other part of the Dominion, urging the Government to supply the needs of the railways from the 10,000 -tons a week that are being produced on the West Coast of the South Island. RUBBING IT IN. If it really is necessary to curtain train services no one can reasonably complain of race specials being cut out, but the authorities certain!y do not ap pear to have dealt very tactfully, ur even fairly, with the public in connection with the Wellington Racing Club's meet ing at Trr-ntham yesterday. It was stotorf a week or so ago in a semi official way that arrangements wero being inade by which the public would be able to travel to the course hy rail But scarcely twenty-four hours before the racing wns to begin it was announced that there would be no special trains and that the ordinary trains would not stop at Trontham or at any station within ten miles of the course either going out or coining in. Tlib effect of this was that the attendance on the course was less than half what it would have been with a train service of any kind—to the very material loss of the Racing Club— what is much more important, workers who habitually use tho trains for getting to and from their employment not make the journey one way or the other.

PUBLIC OPINjON. One effect of all this is a fcnHn?; -of intense irritation throughout the whole community. One of the hard tilings being said of the Minister of Railways otid the General Manager is that by occasioning the public all the inconvenience they can they are trying for some political purpose to stir up a feeling of resentment against the workers in general and the leaders of the Labor Party in particular. This on the face of it is ridiculous. The workers are not being blamed by the public for what la happening. It is the Minister and the Manager that are bearing all the odium, arid business men are no more anxious to make excuses for them than are the workers. A more probable suggestion is that since the beginning of the war the policy of the Department has beeit one drift and that the repent change in ih; aaminWmnon has brought to a bead troubles that have been brewing .during the last four or five years. However this may be, it is certain the subject is going to receive more tlian passing attention during the approaching session of Parliament.