WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1920, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PARLIAMENTARY KEPRESENTATION. CONFERENCE OF TARANAKI MEMBERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) There is some interested comment in political circles to-day \ipon the fact that tho first united conference in fourteen year.-) between the Taranaki members of Parliament was held at .Stratford Inst week. Fourteen years mark the period during which the four Taranaki seats liave been held by the representatives of one party, and the friends of* electoral reform are arguing from the Stratford conference (hat proportional representation so far from making for discord and division makes for unity and public-spirited effortHere, they say, is proof that a Parliament in which all the parties were represented according to their strength in the constituencies would <l>e mueli more likely to give faithful service than one in which the strength of the contending forces was largely determined by the chances of the ballot. REPATRIATION. The statement made by the Hon. D. H. Guthrie, the Minister for Lands, on Saturday, showing that the Government had been able to assist 13,054 returned soldiers towards .re-establishing themselves in civil life at an expenditure \>f slightly over nineteen millions is generally regarded as satisfactory. There is criticism of the repatriation efforts of the Government, of course, chiefly directed against the. high prices paid for private land and the comparatively small 1 area of Crown land brought into profitable occupation by the soldier settler. The answer to this is that the Government could not acquire private land at less than ita market value and that the available Croffn lands, with rare exceptions, cannot he made productive within la year or two of occupation. | DECLINING PRICES. I The cables from Loudon and New York iiiio encouraging a liopo among consunii ors here that a number of tlip necessar* ies of life will be less dear in the near future than they have been since the first or second year of the war. Hut so far there is no indication of "necessaries," as they were defined a decade ago, becoming cheap. Meat inevitably must decline, but bread, sugar, and many other articles of food remnin at famine prices, while butter is bound to rise in spite of all Mr Massey's efforts to keep the price dow.'i for a month or two. Drapery of the common every day kind, if the "buyer knows where to look for it, is cheaper than it was a year ago, hut fuel remains at an exorbitant price, and house-rent is rather soaring than declining. Altogether folk with limited incomes facing the winter with anvthin" but a rosy outlook. " ° s

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. The Prime Minister, who was scarcely loss hard-worked than the Prince of Wales himself during the Royal visit returned to Wellington on Sunday morning. and at once was pounced upon by the reporters for a statement concernin"'; the public accounts. The best he could do for them was to promise that they would be available in a dav or two. ft is being taken for granted that the accounts will show a fairly substantial suiplus, but, that whether large or small, the whole of the balance carried over will bo absorbed by commitments, which are expected to be unusually heavy. Tri these circumstances there will be no alternative to a large loan, and with the price of money in London prohibitive the Dominion will have to dip deeply into its own pockets. WATERSIDE WORK.

Mr. J, G. Harkness, the chairman of Hie Wellington Harbor Board, is tackling the problem of waterside work with an open mind and with a good deal of sympathy for the men who hang about the wharves from year's end to year's end without any settled conditions of employment, ,At last night's meeting of the Board it was decided, on his motion, to set up a committee consisting of members and executive officers of the Board, to consider what methods should ho adopted ''to increase the efficiency of waterside work on the wharves, and to suggest some practicable scheme that will secure permanent employment to the men and be satisfactory to the employers and employed." A movement in tills direction has been on foot for some time I past, and though it has not found favor J with all the men it is believed it would be welcomed by a majority of them, and would largely increase the efficiency of the work at the port.

FARMERS' POLITICAL PARTY. The determination of the Auckland Provincial Farmers' LTnion to form a farmers' political party distinct from any of the existing political parties, does not appear to be finding much favor with a majority of the farmers who happen Ip be in Wellington just now attending various conferences or waiting upon Ministers. The objection most of them urge against the step is that the definite entrance of the Farmers' Union into party politics of any color would be bound to oreate dissensions among the members and ultimately result in a loss of membership. The policy of the farmers all over tile country, one of the visitors said this morning, should bo to join heartily in pressing their legitimate demands upon the Government of the day, by whatever name it might be called, but to scrupulously abstain from threatening Ministers with the terrors of the ballot,box This policy has given good results in the past, and it would be time enough for farmers to talk about other means -if getting their rights when this one failed.