WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

CITY, ENDOWMENTS PERSISTENT FREEHOLDERS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov.. 20. At last, night's meeting of the City Council, the Legislation, Leasehold, unci Libraries Committee brought down a recommendation that a local Dill should be promoted for the disposal of the freehold of the city's Mangahae endowment. The matter was before Parliament during the concluding hours of the, recent session, when the Minister of' Lands included in the VVashing-Up Bill a clause which would have enabled the council to convert the endowment into cash, but the opposition raised by the leaseholders in the House prevented its passage, and the Minister suggested to the council that it should seek its ends by way of a local Bill. The recommendation submitted to the council last night was the first step in this procedure, the committee having lost no time in giving effect to the Minister's advice, and apparently a majority of the councillors are favorable to the sale.

"THE FREEHOLD RAID." The advocates of the sale argued that the Bill would enable the council to exchange a profitless rural endowment for one within the city which would at once yield an increased revenue of from £SOO to £BOO a year. The most vigorous opposition to the proposal came from the Labor representatives in Hie council, who regarded it as part and parcel of "the iniquitous freehold raid"; but the Mayor (Mr. ,1. P. Luke) and Councillor Wright, both members of the House, raised objections to the scheme, 'the Mayor suggested that the eagerness of tiie council's tenants to secure the freehold rested on something more substantial than mere sentiment, and Mr. Wright roundly declared that the eoun- ■: } - was not asking n proper price for the land. But the freeholders were not to be turned from their purpose, and the recommendation of the committee was adopted by ten vote- (o six.

NO SLUMP. Addressing the Chambers of Commerce Conference yer.lerday, Mr. K. Dalton, the British Trade Commissioner, expressed a strong belief that there was no foundation for the reports of a slump of prices in the United Kingdom, He had made all possible enquiries on lh<> subject and from the information he had received was satisfied that the gonera! tendency of prices at Home was to increase rather than to decrease. Mr. Dal ton's obvious purpose was to allay the anxiety of the mercantile community. This country i-nd been importing very large qiinntitior- o f goods during the past nine months, he saidv and anything in the way of a slump) would be a very grave matter to both importers and exporters. This morning the streetcorner talk is about the hard lot of the consumers, who, not unnaturally, have been' regarding the reports of falling

prices with some moa-ure of satisfaction. BARMAIDS. Amdng the belated answers to questions put to Ministers during the session published this morning is one informing Mr. L. M. Tsilt that legislation will be required to give effect to the ten-year-old determination of Parliament to do away with the barmaids. The member for Christchurch North was exercised in his mind because the legislation of 1010, which prescribed that no more women should be allowed to enter the profession of bar-tenders had not appreciably reduced the number of barmaids nor palpably increased their apparent age or lessened the personal charms of those remaining in practice. The only explanation he could suggest was that the licenses issued in 1910 had been transferred from one Hebe to another, and that in this way the number and youth of the members of the profession had been maintained. The Minister, practically, admits the soft impeachment, i "APATHY AND SHIRK." A CANDID FRIEND. (Special Correspondent) Wellington, Nov. 29. Taking as its text the address delivered by Mr. C. Skerrett, the president of the Welfare League, to the Chambers of Commerce Conference, the Postj makes one of its periodic protests against the "apathy and shirk'" of the community in general and the politicians in particular. Mr. Skerrett had emphasised the widespread nature of the "paradoxical predominance" of the "pushful and energetic minority" over the "supine majority," and the local evening journal scores the point that it is not only a. non-extremist Labor Party that allows itself to rest under the imputation of accepting extremist leadership, but that Parliament itself submits meekly to the absolute will of a one-man Government. "Though Parliament continues to shamefully neglect obvious duties," it says, "the business man and executive persons of the community continue to be immersed dn their private all'airs and make no attempt to come to the rescue." All this is very true and its expression very opportune, but the Post suggests no remedy for what it regards as a deplorable state of affairs.

MISLEADING FIGURES. " A few months ago all the three local papers were advocating proportional representation as the only means of obtaining a Parliament really representative of the sense and views of the various parties of the State, but since then they have maintained an ominous silence on the subject, and it, perhaps, would not be unfair to assume. t\\fv have taken alarm at the prospect of proportional representation giving Labor a large accession of strength' in Parliament. At the last general election the official figures represented the Labor vote as being much larger than it really was. It included a large number of Reform votes and a smaller number of Liberal votes which were cast for the Labor candidates when'no candidate of the electors' own particular color was in the. field. This was a matter of tactics, which may, or may not have been admirable, but which certainly gave the Labor vote a much more impressive appearance in the returns than it otherwise would have borne. HANDICAPPED MINORITIES. But the Labor leaders themselves are not oblivious to the facts of the last general election. They do not imasine that either the Reformers or the Liberals lielned thorn out of sheer good will

or that eight .-cats in a House o t ' seventy-six European members give them anything like their fair share of representation. At the same time they realise that with their votes still constituting fewer than one-fourth of the total number polled their sole hope of obtaining their full share of representation lies in proportional representation. Single electorates always have operated against Reformers' in Mr. Seddon's tinny and against the Liberals and LaboriteS al the last general election, and the recognition of this fact by the two parties constituting' the present Opposition probably will bring them to some working understanding in the near future.

DRAWING TOGETHER. The idea was mooted during the recent session, but the members of the attentuated Liberal Party were by no means unanimous in the. matter, on*, section taking the view that any sort of alliance with the extremist was out of the question and another maintaining that any overtures towards this end should como from the Labor benches. The members of tlio official Labor Party, cm their part, preferred to play a game of bluff in which the strong card was their reiterated declaration that they were, the only progressives in tho House and that in the near future every sincere Liberal should range himself under their banner. Since the prorogation, however, both Liberals and Laborites have come to realise that unless Ihey ean reach some understanding, Mr. Massey and his colleagues, and their successors of the same party color, will be given a lease-in-perpetuity of the Treasury Benches. Already there are indications that this prospect is making for ''sweet reasonableness" on both sides.