WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1921, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MUNICIPAL POLITICS. THE MAYORAL CONTEST. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, April 13. The gentlemen whose names were mentioned as members of the committee nominated by the Welfare League to determine whether the Hon. J. Hislop or Mr. L. McKenzie should continue in the contest for the mayoral chair against Mr. R. Wright and Mr. Hickey wish it to be known they were selected .in their private capacity and not as the representatives of any organisations with which they happen to be associated. It was merely a coincidence, the public are asked to believe, that one of them was a member of the Scottish Society, another a member of the Progress League and so forth. The point is not, of course, of a great deal of consequence, as they all are good men and true, but some reflection is cast upon their disclaimer by the fact that one of the nominees, Mr. R. A. Armstrong of the Moderate League, refused to act on the ground that the organisation with which he is connected did not concern itself with municipal politics. REDUCING VOTE-SPLITTING.

The matters of consequence are that the committee has decided in favor of the Hon. J. Hislop and that Mr. McKenzie has ranged his supporters loyally behind his former opponent. Though this need not ensure the return of Mr. Hislop, it will greatly reduce the menace of vote-splitting. With three antiExtremists in the field it would have been quite within the range of possibility for the Labor candidate, who is very “Red” indeed, to reach the chair at a time when it should be occupied by a man of mature judgment and wide experience. The mere contemplation of such a catastrophe has given the advocates of electoral reform their opportunity and they have been saying the familiar things about the “first-past-the-post” system with very particular emphasis. If it should result in the return of Mr. Hickey perhaps even Parliament would sit irp and listen.

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. The Government continues to plume itself upon the success of its soldier settlement policy and no doubt it is‘entitled to a great deal of credit for what it has done for the men who went forth to fight the battles of the Empire. But the mere publication of such figures as were issued yesterday showing the number of millions spent in placing so many men on the land and providing so many more with houses does not tell the whole story of the country’s repatriation yrork. It is a record of splendid effort, but not a frank statement of results. It reveals only one side of the picture. The £25.000,000 have not all been wisely spent and the 18,000 soldier settlers are not all prospering. The Minister of Lands is not called upon to display the other side of the picture just yet, but when Parliament meets he should be ready to take the public into his full confidence and to show them exactly how the men they have sought to benefit stand. THE FINANCIAL STRINGENCY. Though the financial stringency, as the popular phrase runs, is on the surface a little less tense than it was immediately before the close of the financial year, there is no marked improvement in the position. The community seems to be pinning its hopes to the five million loan which Mr. Massey is going to raise in London, but, as a banker asked this morning, what will five millions be among so many eager applicants for assistance to carry them over the crisis? One of the chief difficulties of the situation is that no one can tell how long the crisis is going to Ast or even if its worst stage has yet -Deen reached. Financiers, for the most part, are optimistic, perhaps taking their cue from the Prime Minister, who still limits the lean years to two or three, but they all agree that increased production, "possible only through closer co-operation between Capital and Labor, is one of i the first esenitials towards a speedy recovery.