WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 January 1921, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MORE COAL TROUBLE CONFLICTING EVIDENCE, (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Jan. 17. Just as Wellington had begun to congratulate itself upon having reached the end of its coal troubles another difficulty with the miners at Blackball was reported, and now is threatening to develop into a general strike. The bother was occasioned by the use of bad language certainly by one of the truckers ?at the colliery and allegedly by one of the deputies. The trucker confesses his fault, but pleads that he offended under great provocation. He declares that the deputy also employed bad language, and demands that his own admission shall be followed by an apology from that official. The deputy denies the charge, and refuses to apologise for an offence he did not commit. The Under-Secretary of Mines has investigated the facts so far as he can ascertain them but in his report can recommend only that the matter shall be settled in the Magistrate’s Court. And so the public is to be the chopping block again. A STORM IN A TEA-CUP. The Dominion, referring to the matter this morning maintains that what has happened at the mine, which ever version of the facts may be correct, 'does not justify a national hold up. The secretary of the Miners Federation asked for the Under-Secretarys report, and now he has got it, the local journal contends, he ought to see a better way out of the trouble than the one he and his colleagues appear to b t e favoring. “The public finds the whole conflict,” it says, “to be a two-penny half-penny storm in a tea-cup that with any tact and forbearance would have been settled directly between the local union and the mine manager, or failing agreement should have been referred to a magistrate under the bad language clauses of the Mines Act.” Everyone -will agree with this—no one more heartily than those whose coal bins are well-nigh empty —but unfortunately tact and forbearance seem to be lacking on both sides of the dispute.

FIREBLIGHT

The representatives of the fruit growers here are very far from being satisfied with the statement made by the Minister of Agriculture in regard to the Government’s attitude towards the control and suppression of fireblight. They contend that the Minister has failed entirely to realise the gravity of the situation, and that he is leaving the door wide open to the establishment of a scourge which may wijje out the fruit industry of the Dominion. They characterise his statement as a long drawn out excuse for the Government’s inaction. Among Mr. Nosworthy’s chief offences are quoted 44ie retention of infected trees in the Otahuhu district for experimental purposes, and the removal of Mr. W. T. Goodwin, a thoroughly capable and experienced officer, from the centre of the affected area, where his advice and services have been of much value, to Motueka, where, it is understood his duties will consist of superin tending the packing of apples. The Department of Agriculture is not in favor with the malcontents.

PRICE OF BENZINE.

The high price of benzine is not an item in the cost of living that greatly concerns the mass of the community, but most people have been interested in the outcome of Mr. T. M. Wilford’s demonstration that he was able to import motor spirit from America at a much lower figure than the one at which it was being sold by the local dealers. The' Minister of Industries and Commerce has now investigated the facts at the instigation of the Manawatu executive of the Faremrs’ Union and has reported that Mr. Wilford had procured the oil at a much lower .cost than that of the usual shipments coming to the Dominion because he was not called upon to pay a number of charges such as storage, demurrage, State tolls, chartering commissions, cost of credit and so forth, that fell upon the ordinary importers. The Manawatu executive has referred the report to Mr. Wilford, and meanwhile the users of benzine are wondering why a monopoly of the importation of this article is not conferred upon the member for Hutt in the public interests.