WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PRICE REGULATION, POSITION OF BOARD OF TRADE. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, July 20. The cable from Sydney published on Saturday to the effect that the Necessary Commodities Committee was being revived in l tlie Mother State, in the hope of staying the Continued advance in prices, has led the Hon. W. D. S. Macdonald to make a statement concerning tlie position and functions of the Board of Trade. The board, he said, was being criticised in some quarters for not regulating prices in this country, but as a matter of fact it had no authority to go to this length. It could make recommendations to the Minister for submission to the Cabinet, but there its power ended, except, of course, to support its recommendations by facts and arguments. The board, however, had done a great deal of very useful work in obtaining information, and in inducing manufacturers, merchants and retailers to modify their demands. COST OF LIVING. The Board of Trade and the Government, Mr. Macdonald went on .to were not quarrelling as to which of them was entitled to the credit or the discredit of what had happened in tho Dominion during the last five years, but it was unfair to cast blame upon either of them without a full knowledge of the facts. They both, he thought, might take some' credit for the fact that New Zealand, with tho single exception of India, was the country that had suffered least from the tide of rising prices. The statement was made on the authority of Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University, who in ft recent address to the American Econ-omic-Association, quoted the advances in every country of any consequence affected by the war. ELECTORAL REFORM. The advocates of proportional representation are attempting to set up some kind of organisation to compel the attention of the Government and of the candidates for Parliament to the need for electoral reform in the immediate future. So far their success has not been bo encouraging as they had hoped it would be, chiefly owing, they think, io the absence of the party leaders, and to the uncertainty of their attitude iiv-'nrds the question. But Mr. George r, *" 4 "in, the retired secretary of the Education Department, and other enthusiasts are keeping the subject alive, and the "horrid examples" furnished by the last election at Home of the injustice and inefficiency of the present system of choosing representatives are giving them many "shockers" by which they ultimately should be able to arrest the attention of an indifferent public. THE POLITICAL SITUATION. Though the impending arrival of the party leaders continues to provide abundant material for political gossip, there is nothing further to report in regard to the general situation The Rno. W. D. S. Maedonald's allusion to an ameudment of the Regulation of Trade aud Commerce Act to be introduced next session may be taken to mean tlmt the party truce will be maintained at least for a time after the meeting of Parliament. This would he in accordance with the predictions of the "best informed" authorities that have expressed aiiy opinion on the subject. But truce or no truce, private members on both sides of the House will exercise a great deal more independence than they did during the course of the war, and it. is not unlikely that some of the Ministers will find great difficulty in disguising their party leanings. The session presents many possibilities.