WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1921, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

BOARD OF TRADE. NOT COMMITTLNG HARA-KIRI. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, August 1. There was something like rejoicing at the meeeting of the Farmers’ Conference on Friday, when the newly-elected president, Mr. W. J. Polson, stated that the Board of Trade was about to commit “hara-kiri”. For one reason and another the board is no more popular with the farmers than it is with the townspeople, the, general opinion being that it has failed to realise the purposes for which it was appointed. On behalf of the board, it is said by its tew friends that its good intentions have been restrained by the Government. However this may be, it has hastened to make it known that it has no idea of extinguishing itself. It is a statutory body, and will remain in office till Parliament decrees to the contrary The impression that it was contemplating resignation appears to have arisen from a statement made by the chairman to the effect that he expected by this time next year sugar would be released from Government control. The ehairman has explained since that the price of sugar is not the only matter concerning himself and his colleagues. NOT SO BAD. The startling feature of the public accounts for the June quarter, published last week, was the enormous increase they showed in the railway expenditure. It was set out in plain figures, and without any explanatory comment, that during the three months the expenditure mounted up to £1,978,600, an increase of no less than £1,047,318 upon the expenditure for the corresponding quarter of last year. It was not until Saturday the Acting Minister, or the general manager, or whoever else is responsible for the supply of such ; information, thought fit to explain that | the position was not really so bad as the figures suggested. A large part of the additional expenditure was due to heavy purchases of coal at high prices which had stocked the department’s yards as they had not been stocked for several years previously. This will be a relief to people who worry themselves about such matters, but it still) has to be explained the hoarding of coal affects the accounts between the two islands. It may throw some light upon the poor showing made by the South Island lines since the beginning of the year.

RACING COMMISSION’S REPORT. The Minister of Internal Affairs still is lining deluged with protests against the recommendations of the Racing Conference for the extinction of certain totaiisator licenses and the variation of others. Of course it is the friends of the clubs threatened with demolition that are being heard just now, but these are so strong in fervour and, apparently, so considerable in numbers that they are bound to have more than a passing influence upon public opinion. Another section is warmly denouncing the proposal to largely increase the number of licenses to trotting clubs, whose sport, they declare, does nothing towards improving the breed of utility horses, and largely augments the annual volume of gambling. These sections, added to the section that disapproves of racing altogether, will make a very formidable opposition to the acceptance of the report by Parliament, and at the moment it looks quite possible that the Government’s attempt to shift its responsibility on to the commission will fail. If the report is disapproved by either the House or the Council the Government will have to assume full responsibility for the next step. STATE SHIPPING AND SHOPS. A delegate to the recent farmers’ conference still in Wellington says his enthusiasm for a State-aided shipping line and State-aided retail shops in London is by no means damped by the report of an interview with Mr. Massey on these subjects published in. the morning’s papers. On the contrary, he thinks that what the Prime Minister said to the Australian Press Association is distinctly encouraging to the advocates of the schemes. Mr. Massey could not be expected to talk State socialism in the commercial heart of the Empire, where the tenets of individualism still persist; but it is obvious from the summary of his words that he has not abandoned the views he expressed before leaving the ( Dominion, and these were very largely in accord with the views of the farmers. “Anyway,” reiterated this authority, “we must have a reduction in the cost of transit, and if we cannot get it one way we must get it another.”