WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1921, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

RATS! (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 7. surely is by the irony of fate that an Auckland member of Parliament, the Hon. C. J. Parr, has succeeded to the Public Health held by the. Hon. G. W. Russell in the National Go.verrimynt. Mr. Russell, dtjripg the in? fluenza epidemic bluntly told Aucklanl to i+p its- sh.H»s and- eease being a menace to (.he rest of |he Dominiop. Now Mr: Parr han come to Wellington -ftttd-is teHing the capital city To get rid’ of its rats. Its task is likely to prove iha-iiaidei’. Probably th?' -“QnPeii 'City” had little dtfiicult.y iiu getting rid of its slums —for a time, jit any rate. But Wellington’s rats are quite another proposition. They arg Jiej-e in tl|pjr. hundreds and thousands, every quarter and übloek of tjw city -being infested, and tilBUgA the Mißistw blames the City Councjl rightly fpr sj&tg of affairs, it is diffi'eult to say where the -efforts of4'hat supine body should bPgin.Meanwhile the Mayor, .his- place, in ITPWj. s ygg£st£ blandly that all trdcle between Australia and New Zealand should be stopped! MIN.ISTER .0® DEPARTMENT. In t)uJ Mr- £)• EStatham, the leader pf tjjg Progressive 'Lffiteral and Moderate Labor Rq^ty—represented in the Parliamept by dpd Kellett and hoping foi; a large ade'ession to its strength at thq. geftetal election —moved to restrict* the power given to tile Minister’ T>y - The ‘Qjjyptoms BRI tq prohibit t&p importation of goods “at his own sweet will.” Mr. Massey pp,t the Mfhfster was responsible to Parliament, but this did npf satisfy Statham, who protested it was a casp of Parliament delegating all’ its ppwerp to the -Governmen’t. Mr. Massej' retorted, that Ministers were not asking for this sort of thing because they liked it ? out because it was necessary in the interests of the public. During the war the Government had projiibited the export of jam. “Yes/’ interjected Mr. Statham, “but that was an export, not an ip|port.” And then the Minister took the House into his cortfidencG. It was the head of the department that had asked to have the clause inserted and he .WDuld not have done so without -good reason. . “Gcuerpment by heads of departments” was the flippant comment with which the incident closed. rn.ur COMPANY INCOM® TAX. Though the business men-of AVelHhgton have not been proclaiming their grievances from the housetops lately, they still are feeling very sore about the company income tax. “The income tax we have to pay,” §aid the chairman of the Taringamutu Totara Sawmills Company yesterday, “may bring home to some 'of‘you the eiibrmdus levies now being made on public -companies for income tajj- The rate we pay is 8s 9d in the £. It is grossly upjust. Most bl our shareholders are not entitled to -pay more than abolit 2s, but unfortunately the public finances have been got into such a condition that protest is useless and little redress can be expected. We are not even allowed rea-, ■wuaWe-depreciation ; in other-words, we' niigliit be heading for bankruptcy, but still have tp pay income . |ax.” Mr. Massey, however, is not quite so callous as this would make - him out to be. He really is trying to find relief for the. company shareholder.. He lias made a statement to this effect more than once in the House during the present sessionand if his economies are approved he will be able to give effect -Io his wo^4 s -