TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9657, 23 November 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A SUGGESTION. Although every town in the tricts o£ Wairarapa and Forty Mile Bush possesses its Chamber of Com~ioerce, it is somewhat remarkable that no attempt Has ever been previouslyj made to hold a conference of Chambers.. To-day's conference is, as far as we are aware, the first gathering of its kind that has yet been heldjm the district. The interests [of] the various towns in Wairarapa. North and South are largely identical andi discussion of them by the leading business men of each centre of importance should be productive of beneficial results. Further conferences, similar to that which is being heli to-day might be arranged iii the form' of an annual conference, when papers on commercial questions could be read and schemes for the progress off the district as a whole might be formulated and considered and! pushed on to a successful issue. The question is one that might be very fittingly introduced at the conference w/hich will be held to-day.

PROPOSED LICENSING LEGISLATION.

It is expected that the proposed amending Licensing Bill will be available for presentation to the House early this week. The new raensore will be on the lines of the agreement recently made between .representatives of the No-License and Liquor parties. The details are being worked out by Mr Skerret, K.C., of Wellington, on behalf of "the Trade," and Mr Adams, of Dunedin, for the No-License party. There is very little discussion in the lobbies regarding the proposals. Itt will not surprise some members if the"no license—no liquor" clause i» found to be less drastic than is generally anticipated. Whether the Bill will get through before Christmas will, it is stated, depend very much upon its provisions.

STATE FERRY SERVICE.' The ferry service is an essential part of the railway service. Its timetable and its Bcale of charges should be absolutely within the control of the Government, so that it may be adapted at once to changes in the railway timetable and in railway freights and fares. In order to complete a scheme for popularising the railways and encouraging traffic upon them it should not be necessary for the Government to negotiate with a private company so that the railway systems of the two islands may be brought together advantageously, nor should it be within the power of any private company to hamper the development of the railways by refusing to adjust their timetable to the railway timetable, or to make the concessions in steamer fares that are necessary to give effect to those made in railway fares. The arguments in favour of a Stateowned ferry service, says the "Southland Times," are convincing.