WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

EDUCATION PROBLEMS. INDUSTRIAL RESPONSIBILITY, (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, June 7. Whether or not the Hon. C. X. Parr will be able to materialise''all the schemes for the improvement of the education system lie has on hand remains to be seen. Of course in some,, instances he will reap where the Hon. J. A. Hanan sowed, and no doubt will be ready to give his predecessor in office fl.ll the credit that will he his due. But lie is facing greater responsibilities, as well as enjoying greater opportunities, than Mr. Hanan did, the latter gentleman s term of office having been confined practically to the war period, when there always was a ready excuse for postponing reforms involving any considerable expenditure of money. Probably ijb previous Minister had retired from the Education Office leaving behind him suph a mass of valuable material as Mr. Hanan did, and it is the use made of this material by Sir. Parr that will largely determine the measure of tlio new Minister's success as an administrator.

SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS. On Saturday, Mr. Parr conferred with a deputation representing the secondary school assistant teachers who are claiming improved pay and better conditions. The members of the deputation pointed out to' the Minister that men who lmd devoted all their early years to study and had obtained the deof Master of Arts were now receiving after fifteen or twenty years of service only £350 or £4OO a year, "the salary of a well paid clerk," -The representatives of the Press were not ■adnfitted to' the conference, but from a statement made by Mr. Parr this moming it-seems he is not very hopeful of obtaining from Cabinet any large increase in the secondary teachers' salaries. Ho is prepared, however, to introduce a system of classification and grading which would remove existing anomalies and to some extent improve the obviously inadequate salaries. He is not in favor of further centralisation of the administration of the service, and thinks it better for appointments and promotions to remain in the hands of the boards.

THE COST OF LIVING. The Dominion this morning, in a vigorous article headed "A Neglected Problem," lectures the public upon its futile complaining concerning the cost of living. It admits that the Government has been less active than it might have been in the suppression of profiteering, but its chief complaint is against the individual who suffers, and talks and doos nothing effective. "This: view of the matter," it says, "finds support alike in the attendance and in most of the speeches made in the Town Hall' on Friday evening. The attendance was poor, and the speeches, on the whole, are loss remarkable for what they contained than for what they left untouched." The main factor contributing .towards high prices, for the necessaries of life at any rate,, this authority holds, is the tendency to lower production and raise ivages, which must increase prices to the consumer, who may be eitfier a worker or an employer. I

CASES IN POINT. At the meeting in the Town Hall on Friday night, Colonel Mitchell, M.P., stated that the amount of cargo per man per eight hours' day on the Wellington wharves had declined from 0.8 tons in 1914 to 0.5 tons in 1010, a reduction of 83 per cent. The Colonel also gave it as*, the opinion of a score ■of carpenters ho had consulted that three men would take twenty-five per cent, longer to build a five-roomed house in the present year of srace than they would have <lone in 1014. Yet the wages of both waterside workers and carpenters have been largely increased in the interval. A representative of the waterside workers consulted tKIs morning was not inclined to accept Colonel Mitchell's estimate of the work on the wharves as correct, but admitted the men employed might not be so "capable" as those of four or five years ago, many of the old hands having found more congenial employment.

DRY AMERICA. Wellington, June 0 The contending parties in the liquor campaign here express widely different views as to the probable effect of ft "dry" America upon the next licensing poll in New Zealand. The Moderates profess to be relieved by the prospect of the experiment being tried In the United States. "There is time enough before- the next poll in the Dominion," one flf their leaders said this morning, "for the States to demonstrate to the whole world that prohibition is impracticable and to save this country from committing the same egregious blunder." This authority spoke with every appearmice of absolute sincerity. The Prohibitionists, on the other hand, declare that the decision of the law courts in America lias sealed the fate of the liquor trade in New Zealand as effectually as it would hail it been pronounced by the electors of the Dominion. They will not relax' their efforts to secure success, but they will pursue them with redoubled assurance of ultimate victory. ! THE BALLOT PAPER.

One of the main efforts of the Prohibitionist* between this and the next poll, it was gathered while ascertaining iheir views concerning the news from America, will be directed towards securing what they call a "clean'' ballot paper. They have no rooted objection to "State Control" appearing on the ballot paper as an alternative issue, so long as it is made really an alternative, and not, employed as a device for defeating Prohibition as; it M r as, they maintain, last, December. This means, presumably, they would accept the three issues, Continuance. Prohibition and State Control, provided they were submitted to the electors under a system of preferential voting, and each issue in the country pitted ag.iinst each other issue. It is doubtful, however, "if the Government would agree to an arrangement, of this kind. For one tiling, it would commit Mr. Massey and his colleagues to the principle of preferential voting, and that is a development the Prime Minister at present is not regarding with much favor. PILLAGING. For some time past, the amount of pillagfttg going 011 at the Wellington wharves has been an absolute scandal, and from inquiries made yesterday it would siecm that in spite of all the precautions taken bv the'firms fHid indivi- ! duals immediately concerned the evl! te grow. It hj«« bt«i i