WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1922, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

LOYALTY AND SOCIALISM.

A PARTY CRY. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, October 6. It was inevitable that the speech delivered by the Prime Minister at Levin during the week-end, in which he implied that the approaching general election would be a contest between the loyal Reformers and the disloyal Socialists, would create some stir in the House of Representatives. At the time Mr. Massey was speaking at Levin, Mr. George Forbes, the member for Hurunui, and Mr. W. A. Veitch, the member for Wanganui, were addressing a large gathering at Hastings in support of a Liberal-Labour candidate who is promising to give Mr. H. M. Campbell a hard fight for the Hawkes Bay seat. It was not till Wednesday, when the report of the sessional Committee on the rival petitions of the Post and Telegraph Department employees concerning affiliation with the Alliance of Labour was being discussed, that they got their opportunity to adequately t denounce the Minister s aspersion upon the loyalty of the Liberal-Labour Party. Having gently rebuked the PostmasterGeneral for a misstatement of facts in regard to the attitude of the Opposition towards the petitions-, Mr. Veitch passed on to the Levin speech and declared that any one who called him or his party disloyal was a shameless perverter of the truth. A BREEZY INTERLUDE. Mr. Massey promptly jumped to his feet and called the attention of the Speaker to the offensive words. He wanted the member for Wanganui and the world at large to understand that neither inside nor outside the House would he allow any one to call him a liar and escape unscathed. Mr. Veitch who is of the phlegmatic temperament that is not easily moved to wrath, was surprised and pained by Mr. Massey's vehemence. It never had occurred to him to doubt the Minister’s personal veracity, but if the leader of the Government or any one else questioned his loyalty he would not hesitate to brand him as a perverter of the truth. The Speaker was allowing members much latitude at the time and 1 Mr. Massey did not press his point. He ultimately compromised by saying that if the policy of the Liberal Party were the policy of Mr. Holland it would be disloyal. The Liberals laughed and were content to leave it at that, but Mr. Forbes, speaking in a lighter vein and with characteristic good humour, went on to remind the Prime Minister of the days when he was coquetting with Labour and doing bis best to win its good-will. THE DISLOYALTY BOGEY. If this entertaining digression from the discussion of the Post and Telegraph petitions did nothing else it helped to show the utter hollowness of the disloyalty bogey. Even Mr. Massey was compelled to' admit that many of the Liberals and many of the. workers were as loyal as he was himself—which was saying a great deal —and he was ready with no concrete instance of disloyalty. Mr. Holland is under suspicion, of course, but this gentleman’s disloyalty is rather a pose than a conviction. Of a certainty, as Mr. Forbes suggested, if the Labour leader were at the head of a majority in the House of Representatives the Union Jack would still float ever Parliament Buildings, and the Constitution would be as zealously guarded as it is at the present time. In the circumstances it seems a little ridiculous for the head.? of both the older parties to be renouncing all association

with Labour. It is not probable but it is within the range of possibility that Labour will hold the balance of power in the new Parliament. What then?

AFFILIATION

The report of the sessional committee upon the petitions for and against affiliation, around which much of the discussion revolved, was a perfectly innoxious document. It merely recommended that the petitions should be referred to the. Government for consideration, which is the recognised way of shifting responsibility on to the shoulders of the Executive and leaving it to do as it thinks well. Of course the Government was strongly opposed to the idea of affiliation and though the small minority lead by Mr. Holland managed to maintain a counter demonstration over a couple of sittings it never had any hope of making an impression upon the House or the country. The petition in favour of affiliation had the larger number of signatures, but the one on the other side seemed to carry more weight with members and their decision is generally approved by public opinion. CUSTOMS REVISION. ARRANGEMENT WITH AUSTRALIA. Wellington, October 9. In the House of Representatives on Friday Mr. T. M. Wilford sought from the Minister of Customs information concerning the effect of the reciprocal customs tariff with Australia upon the revenue of the Dominion. The Minister was unable to tell the leader of the Opposition off hand how the revenue would be affected by the concessions made to the Commonwealth, but he was satisfied New Zealand industries were going to benefit by the operation of the new tariff. A Christchurch firm that farm implements, he said by way of illustration, had been able to do a certain amount of business with Australia under the former tariff, which imposed a duty of 33 1-3 per cent, upon its goods, but under the new tariff it was being overwhelmed with orders, some of them coming by cable. The timber and fishing industries also had very materially benefited. Timber mills that had been closed down, on account of having no market for their second class timber had re-opened with every prospect of doing good business and the long stagnant fishing industry was giving indications of revival. Mr. Wilford got no answer to his question, but the House obtained a high commendation of its work. STATE CONTROL. Though the Minister in charge of the Tourist Department appears to have been somewhat reluctant to take the public into his confidence jvhen leasing the Mount Cook Hermitage, Parliament, at any rate, seems well enough pleased with what he has done. According to Mr. Nosworthy’s own statement the State has spent £40,000 upon the Hermitage and has been losing some £2OOO a year, exclusive of interest, in running the establishment. Now it has been let for five years at £2OO a year with guarantees that it will be properly conducted and maintained in good condition. The rent is only one half per cent, on the capital invested, but 'the loss of £2OOO a year will be saved, and there is every reason to believe that the resort will be made much more popular than it is at the present time. The fact is that State control has failed as signally at the Hermitage as it has failed elsewhere when applied to undertakings in. which private enterprise has shown itself so much more adaptable and effective. Even the advocates of the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange are not insisting in these days upon the application of our panacea to tourists resorts. THE FINANCIAL BAROMETER. The bank returns for the September quarter published at the end of last week—unfortunately simultaneously with the less cheering news from the Near East—were welcomed with much satisfaction in financial and business circles here. “The steadily improving economic conditions of New Zealand,” says the Dominion in commenting upon the figures, “are fully reflected in the banking returns for tnp September quarter. The country is slowly, but surely recovering from the slump which struck New Zealand during the second half of 1920 and reached its worst towards the end of the first half of last year. Since then each quarter has shown an improvement in the banking figures, and it should not now be very long before the balance is restored.” The financial editor of the Evening Post prefaces an analytic review of the improved figures with a qualified, but no less frank recognition of the bettered position. “But for the war cloud hanging over the Near East and its undoubted effect upon the public mind, there would be every reason for the Dominion to congratulate itself on the disappearance of the financial uneasiness that has been prevalept for the past two years.” The particularly encouraging feature of the figures is that while at the end of the September quarter of last year the advances and discounts of the banks exceeded the free and fixed deposits by £4,593,946, at the end of the corresponding quarter this year the excess was only £1,032,594, a reduction of £3,561,352. THE ELECTORAL ROLLS. Mr. T. M. Wilford in the House on Friday again complained inf the extremely unsatisfactory condition of the electoral rolls and begged the Prime Minister to take the necessary steps to have them placed in order. Mr. S. G. Smith, the member for Taranaki, and Mr. W. T. Jennings, the member for Waitomo, endorsed the remarks of the leader of the Opposition and declared that numbers of qualified persons in their constituencies wno had voted at every election for years previously had been struck off the rolls without any sort of notice being sent to them. Mr. Massey admitted that the rolls were in an unsatisfactory condition and undertook to consult the officers of the Electoral Department with a view to their being put in order. No doubt the Minister will be as good as his word, but it will be well for every elector to see for himself that he is properly registered.