WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1921, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS. THE MEMBERS’ HOLIDAY. (Special Correspondent.) ■Wellington, Dec. 23. By abandoning a substantial part of the programme he had made imperative a day or two before, the Prime Minister was able at an early hour yesterday morning to release Parliament for the holidays. Members will return on January lil—those of them, that is, who may feel inclined to come back so soon—and will find work enough remaining to occupy them for another two months. Many of the Government’s most important measures still have to be discussed, the Estimates not half through, the retrenchment proposals remain in the air and the meat pool and the butter problem are only just now added to the list. Of all the members of the House Mr. Massey stands most in need of rest, but that he will get as much as a couple of days to himself during the next fortnight seems highly improbable. His colleagues will be able to join in the general festivities, but the man at the helm must stick to his post. THE MEAT POOL. Absentees from the glad throng of legislative holiday-makers will be the members of the committee that was responsible for the initiation of the meat pool scheme and that is now entrusted with the task of collecting information on the subject from the various quarters concerned. The farmers’ organisations generally have been found favorably disposed towards the scheme. The plight of the sheep men is so serious, indeed, that they would be. eager to clutch at any straw thrown their way. But the freezing companies and the exporters are seeing difficulties in the way and still have to be persuaded a road out of the existing difficulties has been discovered. The Government grading, which obviously is essential to the working of the scheme, these critics declare to be quite impracticable. Meat, they insist, cannot be divided into classes as butter can, simply because its quality depends largely upon breeding and feeding, factors which cannot be determined as texture and flavor can in the case of butter. THE PRODUCERS' VIEW.

Many of the producers, who, almost without exception, would be glad to participate in the advantages ot the scheme foreshadowed by Mr. Massey and the committee, concur in the view expressed by the foreign companies and the exporters in this respect. . These producers have brands of their own which have won recognition for themselves on the London market and command prices which may have little to do with the points which could be detected by the average grader. In addition to this there is in many quarters a frank distrust of State management of any commercial undertaking. It is admitted that the Imperial Supplies Department did uncommonly good work during the period of the commandeer, but it is pointed out that it was working under entirely different conditions from tho.fe which would be imposed upon the administrators of the meat pool. This, of course, is more or less a political question, on which opinions necessarily are sharply divided, but the objections to meat grading appear to rest on practical, experience. THE BUTTER PROBLEM. The butter problem does not present exactly the same difficulties as does the meat pool, but at the moment it seems no easier o-f solution. The suggestion that the Imperial authorities should hold back the sale of its surplus butter in order that New Zealand and Australia may reap such advantages as are to be gained in the London market is another appeal to the generosity of the Mother Country. If the Imperial authorities missed their present opportunity to sell they probably would be compelled to accept a still lower price later on. The alternative suggestion, that New Zealand and Australia should purchase the surplus butter and do the holding back themselves, perhaps is a little less illogical, since it would throw upon the people to be benefited the inevitable risk; but it would be a sheer speculation and the point to consider would be the side on which the greater chances of the gamble lay. It is a decision thrust upon the Government at a time when it has no occasion to be seeking additional burdens.