WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1921, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

WATERSIDE DISPUTE. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, March 9. The undertaking of the watersiders to abandon the “go slow” policy and to discontinue pin-pricking tactics will be recorded in the most impressive manner possible; but its observance still will remain merely a moral obligation on the part of the individual, and some of the employers have grave doubts as to its fulfilling its purpose. One of them stated to-day that his experience during the war had inclined him very strpngly towards State control\of the wharves. The present system, he said, had proved enormously costly as well as ineffective, and gave owners and shippers no a.ssurance for even the immediate future. The average State management might not be as good as the ideal pri„ vate management, but at least it would save the country fxV>m the repeated interruption of traffic that were “playing the Very dickens” with its trade; WHEAT PRICES, The long delayed wheat prices are at last announced, and seem to be giving satisfaction to no one. The farmers say they should have been substantially higher, the subsidised millets contend the time has arrived for a free market, the bakers declare they are left with no margin of profit, and the consumers complain the price of bread is too high. A factor hearing on the subject being discussed here is the production of wheat in the North Island. The tradition that the Dominion must remain mainly dependent upon Canterbury for its supply of bread-stuffs, has been shaken to some extent by the harvesting of many excellent crops between this and Auckland, but it still persists in the official mind and. no systematic attempt has been made to exploit the potential wheat-growing lands on this side of the Strait. The matter M likely to be brought under the notice of the Council of Agriculture.