WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1921, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE BONDS OF EMPIRE. KNIT BY A GENEROUS HAND. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, July 13. A little while ago Mr. G. Mitchel], MJ?., protested with flaming indignation against the suggeation that during the war the Mother Country had “profiteered” at the expense of the Dominions. “How little our service; how great her return” was the burden of his eloquent words. They caught the ear of Sir Francis Bell and moved the Acting Prime Minister to etrike a note of appreciation which did him infinite credit. “Let a New Zealander born and bred,” he wrote to the member for Wellington South, "thank you for your defence of the Mother Country’s dealings with her Dominions and Dependencies. England has been gracious beyond measure, to us, and only the Governments of the Dominions and Colonies realise how patiently and considerately the Imperial Government meets every request and how readily it allows us tu have the best of every bargain. I lake off my hat to the man who wrote that spirited defence—l endorse every word of it—and whatever be your side in Parliament I am proud to be in the same Parliament with a man who can rise to the occasion as you have, and say, far more eloquently than I could, what should be made known to all our people and realised by all our children.” The letter constitutes a pretty interlude in the rather drab atmosphere of political life, and deserves ft high place in the record of party amenities. THE MINING DISPUTE. The coal-mining dispute has been allowed to drift along so placidly during the last month or two that the public has begun to imagine that there is no serious difference of opinion between the parties and no real need for a review of the situation. But this is by no means the case. Just where the view of the employers and the men diverge it may be difficult for the outsider to say, but it is obvious from an official statement issued by Mr. T. 0. Bishop, the acting secretary of the Coa\ Mine Owners’ Association, to-day that the employers, at any rate, are not content to allow the dispute to drift on indefinitely. “The agreements under which work has been carried on at the various mines having expired,” a paragraph in this statement runs, “it is necessary that new ones shall be entered ■into, and the mining companies have availed themselves of the method provided by the law of the land and filed their proposals for new agreements with the clerk of awards in each industrial district.” This, of course, is quite in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the statute, and there is no fault at all to find with the employers’ attitude; but unfortunately the representatives of the men decline absolutely to have anything to do with the Arbitration Court, and at the moment it is difficult (to see the way out. The employers profess themselves quite determined to reach a settlement, but the route they will pursue is still undisclosed.