WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 May 1921, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SOLDIERS AND EMPLOYMENT.

ALLEGED DISMISSALS.

(Special Correspondent.) Wellington May 16. The statement made by the Acting Minister of Railways in regard to the alleged dismissal of returned soldiers and married men from* the railway tiervice in order to give employment to recently arrived immigrants is not proving entirely satisfactory to .the people immedately concerned. Mr. Guthrie admits that certain men on account of their age have been “paid off,” a leis harsh term than “dismissed,” and that new arrivals hitve been placed in positions for which men of the proper age “within the Dominion” were not available. Though the Minister does not allow quite so much, the truth of the matter seems to be that the Railway Department did not foresee the decline in the demand for labor any better than the private individual did, and committed itself to the employment of immigrants before it .realised the difficulties of the position. It is now being alleged that other departments are in much the same position.

PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE

The Evening Post, instigated by the irrepressible Central Progress League, is again drawing odious comparisons between the public works expenditure in Auckland and in the southern portion of the North Island. During the three years ended in 1920, it says, £626,040 was spent on railways in the Auckland district with a population of 308,760, and only £226,960 in the Central Progress League area with a population nearly 100,000 greater. This is followed by many another “horrid example*’ of the favors that are being bestowed upon Auckland at the expense of the rest of the Dominion. The Government already has replied to this criticism by saying developmental needs, not population, must be the deciding factor in the distribution of public works expenditure, and there may be reason this contention, but probably Wellington would fare much better than it does in this respect had it more of the civic spirit that animates the people ;of Auckland.

POLITICAL PARTIES.

The somewhat futile correspondence between Mr. Peter Fraser, the member for Wellington Central, and Mr. T. M. Wilford, the leader of the Opposition, which opened with a discussion of the relations between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party and now is ranging over the whole surface of the world’s politics, has brought from the extreme Labor champion a definition of Jiis own and his party’s attitude towards the Russian revolutionary party which may be worth keeping on record. “I consider Lenin and Trotsky to be two of the world’s greatest statesmen,” he writes. “I do not think the policy which these two working-class leaders have supported in the process of establishing and maintaining a Soviet Government. in Russia either possible or desirable in New Zealand.” This does not commit the extremists to a great deal, but it suggests that their loyalty to the British Empire and to constitutional government is mainly a matter of convenience and opportunity.

LOANS AND FINANCE.

There is much speculation here as to the prospects of Mr. Massey being able to raise on anything like reasonable terms the five million loan for public works, soldier settlement and other purposes on which the easing of the Dominion’s finance during the next few months so much depends. The Prime Minister should arrive in London at the end of the present week and within a few days of his landing he should be able to gather sufficient information concerning the money market to advise his colleagues definitely on the position. The authorities here expect him to succeed, but predict the rate of interest will be considerably higher than New Zealand has been accustomed to pay. However, the advantages of having funds available for urgent public works would be so great that a substantial increase in the charge would not be felt and settlement and production throughout the country would be 'enormously assisted.

SIR JOSEPH WARD.

The report that Sir Joseph Ward will return to the Dominion in the course of two or three months has given rise to a good deal of speculation as to his political intentions. In some quarters it is stated, as if with authority, that he will take the earliest opportunity to re-enter Parliament and when there will place his services at the disposal of his old party. As regSfl’tls this, it may be said positively that Sir Joseph has no such intention. He went Home expecting to remain there about a year and his return at the time indicated would be consistent with his original programme. But he will be in no hurry to immerse himself in politics again and he certainly will not be an eager candidate for the Liberal leadership. Anything he has said to his friends on this subject does not commit him beyond the dissolution of the present Parliament, but that may not be the limit of his renunciation of public life.