WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE HOLIDAYS. A GAY SEASON. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Jan.„s. Though the weather for the holidays was very mixed, wind and rain alternating with calm and sunshine, Wellington never has spent a gavcr ChristmasNew Year time. Tradesmen report record business, and the trains, trams and ferry steamers have been crowded day after day with glad throngs of children and grown-ups on pleasure bent. The nice meetings within reasonable reach — those at llanawatu, Wairarapa and Marton—drew large crowds of visitors from the city, and doubtless these crowds were responsible for the phenomenal increases in the totalisator investments everywhere. There evidently is plenty of spare cash in Wellington, as there appears to be in all the other centres of population, and during the last fortnight little of it has been employed in making preparations for the rainy day the joyless pessimists always fire predicting. TRAMS AND MOTOR CAES.

The shocking accident to an inward bound Lyall Bay car on Saturday evening has set nervy people talking afresh of the perils of the Wellington tram and motor-car traffic. The deplorable catastrophe which is giving point to their protests to-day seems to have been due to no sins of commission or omission 011 the part of those ia authority, and, in any case, will not be open for discussion, from this point of view, till an official ■ inquiry into the facts has been held. For a long time, however, there has been n. growing feeling that the motor-car traffic in the city and suburbs is allowed far too much latitude in the matter of speed and in the interpretation of the rules of the road. Minor accidents that escape publicity in the papers are of frequent occurrence and major ones are mounting up at an alarming rate. THE LIBERAL LEADERS.

The ineetiug of (he Hon. W. ]). S. MacDonald, the Hon.. A. M. Myers and Mr. 'P. M. \\ iKoj'il at Rotorua, to prepare the way for a caucus of the Liberal Party in Wellington later on, has been the subject of much interested discussion during the holiday*. Sir Joseph Ward's late colleagues naturally are expected to suggest a line of action to the other members of the party, and their advice, doubtless, will be reeciyed with much respect. But it. is not to be assumed that they, or the other members of the party, are contemplating the institution, of a vigorous campaign against the Reform Government. Favored by a defective electoral system and bv the turn of fortune's wheel, "Mr. Masse.y has firmly established himself on the Treasury benches, and the present temper of the Liberals, is to accept the circumstances fis they are, and to make the best of them.

At the same time it is certain that the Opposition, though neither factious nor particularly well disciplined, will 'he an nlert and a. very vigorous one. The Liberal Party -will sadly mta Sir Joseph Ward, whose personality, experience, and knowledge were dominant factors in the daily Hie of the House: but it still comprises strong men who will not allow their ideals to go by default,. There '"ill _is talk among Air. Masscv's friends of another coalition, in which both Liberalism and nnofliwnl Labor would be represented on a jiroporiimi.il basis, but the idea is not finding favor with the rank and file of any of the parties, and the 'probabilities are Hint (he reconstructed .Cabinet will be en-tii-cly Reform. Official Labor is hoping to be the recognised Opposition in the new Parliament, and would like nothing better than another ■■(nice" between the two old parties.