WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1921, Page 12

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. THE LABOR SET-BACK. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, May 2. The somewhat extravagant jubilation of the local newspapers over the ‘’setback” of the Labor Party at the municipal elections has brought the inevitable retort from Mr. Peter Fraser, the recognised publicity agent of the Social Democrats. The Citizens’ Party, representing a coalition of the various forces definitely opposed to extreme Labor, having won the mayoral contest by a two to one . majority and returned thirteen members out of fifteen to the City Council, might have been excused a little vigorous flag-waving. But their journalistic friends went further than this. They declared in effect, that the Labor Party was “down and out,” that its race was run, and that it stood rejected and discredited before an enlightened and indignant public. But Mr. Fraser shows that the Labor poll so far from going back at the recent election actually went forward by some 670 votes, and contends that under any fair and logical system 6f representation, the “Blues.” as he calls the victorious party, would have won only eight seats, Labor five and the Independents two. This, he maintains, would have left the “Blues” with a majority of one-fifteenth in the Council instead of. one of thirteenfifteenths, and thus would have made it truly representative of public opinton in the city.

THE ROLL. There are many obvious fallacies in Mr. Fraser’s presentation of the case, but there can be no doubt he is justified in warmly denouncing the condition of the municipal roll. Even the retiring Mayor, Mr. J. P. Luke, who must realise he is responsible in some measure for its defects, admits the roll was very far from being complete. The special committee set up two years ago on the suggestion of the Returning Officer to devise a better system of registration had done nothing, and it was notorious that hundreds of people qualified to vote had not been enrolled. All that Mr. Luke has to say about the matter is that it would have c*sst money to place the names of these people on the roll, and that the money could be better employed upon necessary works within the city. The Council had done all it could by advertising, and it took no further responsibility. The result was an extraordinarily large number of omissions from the roll,. and Mr. Fraser declares the Labor Party was th A chief sufferer. From such facts as can be gathered it seems likely there is some ground for his complaint.

TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. On his return from Auckland on Saturday the Mon. C. J. Parr, the Minister o-f Education made a very spirited reply to the complaints coming from Dunedin concerning the new regulations for the classification and payment of teachers in technical schools. The Minister’s critics, it seems, had assumed that the regulations had been framed with the express purpose of centralising in Wellington the control of the schools and depriving the local boards of all authority. Mr. Parr marvels that such a travesty of the facts should have got about. The regulations, he says, simply, put the employment, classification and payment of technical school teachers on a proper footing, and are bound to make for a more satisfied and a more efficient service. There is no wish at all on the part of the Department to interfere with the authority of the local boards, but a very earnest desire to cooperate with them in making technical education the force it should be in moulding the commercial and industrial destinies of the Dominion. COAL SUPPLIES. There still is no indication of the intentions of the Miners’ Federation in regard to the owners* refusal to consider the demands made by the men at the recent conference. It is being assumed that the miners, realising the futility of being led into a struggle with the employers at the present time, have refused their leaders the necessary authority to embark upon such a hopeless enterprise. This, however, is more speculation. There is no authority whatever for saying there are differences of opinion between the executive of the Federation and the rank and file of the industry. But while the negotiations between the parties have been dragging on, the stocks of coal within the Dominion have been largely increased by importations from overseas. Though this may not affect the price of coal during the present winter, it will greatly relieve the position in respect to supplies. It is not at aIL likely the scarcity of nine or ten months ago will recur.