WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 March 1921, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE WATERFRONT. COMMUNITY control. (Special Correspondent). . Wellington, March 25. At a meeting of the Wellington Harbor Board on Wednesday it was resolved on the motion of Mr. J. G. Cobbe, one of the country members of the board, “to approach the Government with a request that the Harboi Board Act be amended in such a manner as to empower harbor boards to employ, control and. manage all required in the loading and unloading of ships and for waterside work generally, whether on wharves or on vessels.” Proposals to this effect had been before the board before, and at the meeting of the Harbor Boards' 5 Conference in 1918 the principle of Mr Cobbe’s motion had been affirmed by a narrow majority; but recent happenings on the wharves here had given point and urgency to what had been eaid on former occasions. The members were, not unanimous on the question, the voting seven to three, but the advocates of a change in the system of control had no (Jjffknilty in showing that the present conditions were intolerable.

THE CASE FOR REFORM. Mr. Cobbe presented a very strong case for reform. present, he said, there were four bodies concerned —the ship-owners, who "were chiefly interested in the size of their dividends; tlie watersiders, who were out as much as they could; the harbbr boards, who represented the producers and the commercial interests, and the long-suffering public, who had to find the money for the. other three. It was incongruous, not to say ludicrous and outrageous, that of these four the two least likely to be careful for the welfare of the port and the community had great bulk of the control in that they might open or shut the harbor or work it just as the> pleased. The ship-owners’ representatives on the board warmly opposed the motion, protesting that it aimed at involving the board in responsibilities it never could bear, but the majority made light of their fears and simply overwhelmed. them in the division.

THE ACTING PRIME ■ MINISTER In concluding the business of the short session in fhe council on Tuesday Sir Francis Bell made some allusions to the criticism that had been directed against his appointment as Acting Prime Minister during the absence of Mr. Massey. He did not understand the criticism, he said, because the Prime Minister still remained Prime Minister, and he, as his locum tenens, was merely chairman of Cabinet for the time being. Had Sir 'Francis left it at that, the critics- of his appointment probably would have had nothing more to say on the matter; but he went on to argue that the members ’of the council were as truly representative of the people as were the members of the House. Naturally this has set people recalling what Sir Francis and Mr. Massey had to say a few years ago about the constitution of the council and the need for its reform. The quotations are made in good humor, but some of them certainly are amusing. REPRESSION. The Easter holidays this year are finding the community repressed rather than depressed, a frame of mind, of course, entirely appropriate to the season and the circumstances. That the most irresponsible of people, the units that go to make up a sporting crowd; are beginning to recognise the gravity of the questions discussed during the short session of Parliament, was demonstrated at the Rangitikei race meeting this week, when the investments on the totalisator dropped by £18,0!>5 compared with the investments at the corresponding meeting last year. That this all was money saved —economy of the kind z Mr. Massey has been preaching—is perhaps Open to argument, -but it at least represents a considerable amount of capital diverted into more useful channels. Business people report scarcely so large a falling-off in legitimate trade, but there evidently is a growing disposition to spend slowly, which the authorities on such matters declare must make for a decline fn prices. " With this expression of financial stringency the purchasing public will find no fault.