NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 22 November 1926, Page 6

NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL

WELLINGTON TOPICS THE PRIME MINISTER. RETURN TO NEW ZEALAND. (Front Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 19. His personal friends and the public at large are officially reminded this morning that the mail timed to leave Auckland on Tuesday next will be the last to catch the Prime Minister before he leaves London on his return journey. The business of the Imperial Conference will be concluded in the course of a few days, and before hie departure from England Mr. Coates will undertake a tour of the Old Land with a view to making himself acquainted with various matters with which a Dominion ruler should be familiar. Then he will cross to Franco to view the scenes of his military exploits, and, as far as may be, remind the Allies of the Empire during the war that the spirit of comradeship still survives in this remote cornei- of the earth. The Minister is expected to reach New Zealand at. the end of January or at the beginning of February, in ample time to join in the welcome to the Duke and Duchess of York, and to make preparations for a session of Parliament which promises to be much more interesting than was the one hurried through this year to enable him to attend the Imperial Conference. WELLINGTON’S AWAKENING. - The well-roaded city of Wellington at last appears to have awakened to the fact that its footpaths, taken all in all,’are the worst to be found in any city or in any self-respecting provincial town in the Dominion. The truth was proclaimed in the Post last evening, and this morning pedestrians are looking around and wondering why someone had not protested before. ‘’ln many parte of the suburbs since the lay in" of permanent roads has made progress,” the Post told its readers with its habitual diffidence, “the motor ways are in better order than the footpaths. The motorist may drive along a smooth, even surface, while the pedestrian is compelled to pick his way over a broken track, and, in wet weather, through pools of water and patches of mud. In some instances the footpath was originally in gcyxl repair, and was cut about so that pipes or cables might be laid under it. Surely there is some obligation upon the trenching authority to make good the damage done. In any circumstances the pedestrian is entitled to greater consideration. He is not called upon to pay a special tax for road-making, but he M rated heavily. He is not asking too much when he pleads for reasonable footways till sucli time as he graduates to the motorist class and obtains some return from the road-making work.” It is to be hoped that the long-suffer-ing citizens will emphasise the appeal of their evening paper. DISSATISFIED RAILWAYMEN. Substantial eoneessions having been made to a section of the members ot the second division of the Railway service, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants has renewed its application for an increase in wages. The Prime Minister told the representatives of the society just before his departure for the Imperial Conference that the increase they demanded would involve an expenditure of £40,000, a sum the department could not afford. But Mr. Coates, in hie pleasant way, so .it is alleged, advised the executive to keep in touch with the Acting-Minister of Railways during his absence. “In accordance with that advice,” Mi. O. T. Carlyle, the president of the society, stated yesterday, “my executive felt justified in approaching the ActingMinister on behalf of the men we represent. Briefly, our representations for increased pay were unsuccessful. The position of the men on the basic wage does not appeal to the powers that be. The Minister, to a certain extent sympathetic, declared that he wae unwilling, while only acting as Minister, to involve the department in increased expenditure, evidently being oblivious of the fact that his department was pledged to the expenditure of many thousands for the benefit of men whose ease by no stretch of the imagination can be called necessitous.” Mr. Carlyle, however, found a sympathetic ActingMinister in the Hon. F. J. Rolleston, mid he does not yet despair of something being done for the men. THE BASIC WAGE. Explaining the position of the “basic wage men” in the service. Mr. Carlyle made out a case which certainly calls for the attention of the authorities. The shopmen, he said, on account of working only forty-four hours a week, felt the pinch more acutely than others did. They received £4 0s Sd for a full week’s work. From this was deducted 5 per cent, for superannuation premiums, Is a week for union and sick benefit fees, and 25s for house rent, leaving only £2 10s Sd to supply all the needs of a family. Any time lost, if only fifteen minutes, was so much hard cash lost. “Does it take a vivid imagination,” the president asked, “to picture the condition of a family, say, of six persons, which has to -exist on a little less than 8s 6d per head if full time is worked? The Minister drew our attention to the family allowance of 2s per week for each child above the number of two in the family. I admit that is something, but it should be paid for each child,, and in any case will not be paid for six months. However, Mr. Rolleston is going into the question of how something can be done, and we are hopeful that some good will result, at least for the men on the basic w’age.” It seems almost incredible that any Government department can be paying such wages to skilled men as Mr. Carlyle indicates, but the facts are indisputable.