WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1922, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

STILL GOING SLOW. A FRUITLESS WEEK. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Sept. 8. It was expected that this week the House of having disposed of the Address-in-Reply and the Budget debate, would set about the serious business of the session in earnest. But as a matter of fact it has scarcely accelerated its rate of progress at all. Ministers besides talking a great deal more than seemed necessary themselves have encouraged private members to talk upon every trivial subject that has cropped up from day to day. Mr. Holland, the leader of the Labour Party, has been practically invited to join in little controversies concerning loyalty and sedition. Mr. McCallum, the member for Wairau, has been allowed to occupy the best part of a sitting with a discussion on a Licensing Bill, which every one knew to be an appropriation measure and therefore incapable of being carried through by a private member, and Mr. Lysnar and the rest of the loquacious honourable gentlemen in the Chamber have been left to spread themselves over the pages of Hansard to their heart’s content. Of course this sort of thing has occurred in the House before on the eve of a general election, -but never to the extent it is occurring now. MR. McCALLUM’S LITTLE BILL. Mr. McCallum’s little Bill, entitled State Control of Licenses Act, was never intended to be taken seriously as a prospective piece of legislation. Its obvious purpose was to give its author and the other zealous opponents of Prohibition in the House an opportunity to air their views on the licensing question before the public. This they did ip a most delightfully irresponsible fashion quoting thousands in round figures that made them millions and depicting in lurid colours the desolation that would fall upon the land if Mr. Isitt and his allies had their way. The House displayed little interest in the discussion, which mainly was dull and uninspiring, and gladly gave the Bill its second reading to get it out of the way. But it had some right to complain that the head of tiie Government should have permitted such a tax upon its forbearance. Mr. Massey is a very fine disciplinarian when he cares to exercise his powers, but so far this session he has not seemed anxious to take the House in hand. Mr. Speaker, too, has been exceptionally indulgent and some members have been overready to presume upon his patient courtesy. “A FALSEHOOD.” The Prime Minister appeared in something like his old fighting form in the House yesterday when he denounced as a falsehood a statement made by Mr. R. Cobbe, the selected Liberal candidate for the Oroua seat, to the effect that he had instructed the Board of Trade to issue an order that bread must not be sold under the price fixed by the Board. “I would like to express my feelings in regard to that gentleman in good terse Anglo-Saxon,” Mr. Massey said, “but I know I should be offending against the Standing Orders of the House and I am not going to do it. I say that the statement was a falsehood. I cannot express it in stronger terms than that.” It seems that Mr. Forbes, the member for Hurunui, and Mr. Masters, the member for Stratford, were on the platform with Mr. Cobbe when the aspirant for the Oroua seat attributed this mandatory order to Mr. Massey, and they, as a matter of course, came in for a share of the Minister’s denunciation. He would repeat his denial, he said, from every platform from which they might speak and see that the public knew the truth. The subsequent discussion did not make the truth quite plain and ultimately closed with a promise by the Minister in charge of the Board of Trade to inquire into the allegations. TRADE OUTLOOK. Mr. R. W. Dalton, the British Trade Commissioner, who is about to be transferred from his present office, was the guest of honour at the New Zealand Club’s luncheon yesterday, and in a happy vein spoke words of good cheer to the people of the Dominion. “My own opinion, for what it is worth,” he said, “is that a very definite improvement has been seen in New Zealand, and that it is not unlikely that a further period of considerable prosperity is not far ahead.” Mr. Dalton, whose business it has been to study such matters very closely, sees in the wool position and the dairy produce position every reason for optimism on the part of producers. Wool, he contends, must advance in value and must remain on a stable basis for many years. London, he said, believes in New Zealand, and New Zealand must believe in itself, not'only that it may embrace the good fortune that is knocking at its doors, but also that it may fortify the faith and confidence of its friends at the other end of the world. Mr. Dalton will leave the Dominion with the warm goodwill of a multitude of business and personal friends to all of whom he has given freely of his knowledge and experience.