WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 253, 1 March 1898, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[from oue own correspondent]. WeU/Inqton, February 18. A HOMERIC TEST MATCH. Most people hold cricket to he of supreme importance at this season of the year. Still, many eyes arc now turned Wellingtonwards noting the great test match between Prime Minister Seddon and Plain John Duthie. They are the real candidates, Mr R. C. Kirk, the nominal Liberal candidate, being merely a marionette who postures as the strings are pulled by his political proprietor. He, like Mr Charles Wilson at the Suburbs bye-election just a year ago, has " slave " writ large across his breast, and is trotted out to be the working man's representative. The conditions to qualify a candidate for the working man's member are not that he should be a working carpenter, a navvy, ot even a wharf lumper. All that is needed is that Mr Seddon should accept him, adorn him with the dog collar of his approval, and instruct the Civil Service, the police and the billet-hunters that their hopes of reward depend upon the success of their advocacy of the Government candidate. Bub the unanimity which formerly made the labour vote irresistible in Wellington no longer exists. The ballot last night resulted in giving Kirk 740, Hiodmarsh 601, and McLaren 288. Therefore Mr Scddon's satellite is in a majority of 149 to start with in the labour vote alone. Although the Trades Council, which arrogates to itself the direction of Liberal movements here, announced that the various candidates had pledged themselves to abide by the majority votq, there is nothing to compel those who oppose Mr Kirk on the grounds that he is merely Mr Seddon's nominee to vote to order, nor will they Many have openly declared for the Opposition candidate already. Besides, there is another—a Mr Coltman, <t watchmaker—standing on bis own bottom who will catoh many votes. The fact is the labour party is completely disintegrated as a political engine. The more sensible of the men realise that the laws made on their behalf are operating against their intereits, and that the shackles put on enterprise and capital aro more harmful to themselves than those they desire to punish because they are better off. Where economic arguments are listened to impatiently or not listened to at all, a startling fact comes home to those who depend on constant woik for their daily bread. Thus the fact that the only employment Premier Seddon pays for personally is that of a couple of "servant girls and a boy in buttons, and Mr Kirk a charwoman a couple of hours a week, to sweep out his and his partner's office. Mr Duthie is not only a large employer of labour—of carters, storemen, clerks and others—but he gives them a good deal higher pay than the average. Beyond this narrow view of the fitness of a representative, the personal character and standing of the candidates is very striking and people are realising that where Kirk and others are ambitious for their own sakts and openly barter the positions they hope to fain for the approving nod of Mr Seddon, Ir Duthie is making great personal sacrifices to do his share in bringing about a change in our present deplorably corrupt administration. Another matter which has brought considerable disrepute on the wire-pullers was the endeavour of Mr Seddon and his unscrupulous partisans to jockey the ballot-boxes. It was astonishing how the rolls of some of the Seddonian organisations twelled in one week, the same names being added simultaneously to half-a-dozen societies. The art of ballot-stuffing flourished exceedingly with Tammany for many years, and it is said that while Mr Seddon was iu New York he compared his own system with the latest Tammany methods and both parties profited by the exchange of ideas. THE POLICE COMMISSION. For once, a Royal Commission is getting out of witnesses answers, which to some extent warrant its appointment. This was hardly hoped for at first, but the Commissioners were put on their mettle by Mr Duthie publicly stating that it could hardly be expected they would enquire into matters likely to discredit Ministers since two of them were Magistrate?, whose positions were dependent on the good-will of Ministers and the other a personal friend of the Premier. This provoked a reply from Mr Wardell, who deuied he was any longer a Magistrate, but that his pension was secured to him and that he was perfectly independent. Mr Duthie met this by illustrating the results of previous Commissions and adding point to his sp3ech by showing that Mr Wardell was frequently employed as an extra Magistrate and as such drew travelling allowances. This may or may not have influenced the proceedings, bub Colonel Hume is having a pretty bad time of it as a witness. He is compelled to admit, both by his own evidence and that of official records, that the real head of the police force has been Mr Seddon since he became Minister, and that neither the departmental head, Hume himself, or the Inspectors, had the slightest authority as to appointments, dismissals or promotions of constables ; that in fact the force was purely political. Men who had been retired from the force and paid compensation by the Atkinson administration, had been taken on again and retained their retiiing allowance ; in one case this amounted to £7OO and the man was re instated after five months. Another, an exceptionally stupid fellow, who had been tried several times and dismissed, was taken on, on the recommendation of Mr Millar, M.H.R., and is now a plain clothes constable, doin? detective duty. This is properly a reward for smartness, but there are several instances of jolter-headed mugginses who are prowliog about drawing pay for interview ing householders, who have had their premises broken into or their clothes lines ravished. I have had a couple through my hands and the conclusion I arrived at was that a professional thief had nothing to fear at their hands. But investigation led to the discovery that the alleged detectives both had numerous relatives, who were so elated at having one of the family in a Government billet, that they could be relied on to vote straight all the time. This is why Mr Seddon is so universally popular in West'aud. There he can appeal to every soul " Did I not put your son Pat in the artillery an'd now he's a first-class constable ?" " Where would your brother Mick have been if I hadn't given him that messengership." Popularity is easily gained in this way, and what is more, it wears well so long as the Treasury chest will stand it. The city populations have to be content with Labour Bills, but as all that can be passed are now on the Statute Book, except those reserved for special occasions like the Wellington bye-election, and Mr Seddon with all his ability cannot originate any new ones, the city artizans are beginning to realise that a Lig Statute Book is not the only thing that goes to make prosperity, increase wages and provide more time for relaxation. Were it not that the Premier is so cocksure of being the only cabinetmaker and law-giver iu the colony, I should have given him a few tips in the direction of further laws which would have been as popular as the "Truck Act," which encourages the worker to set up housekeeping with his employers' goods and then set him at defiance when pay-day comes round. A few evenings ago I watched a procession of Liberal Leaders and political women filing into a meeting to discuss the state of the nation. The impression left en me was that the time had arrived when a newdepartment had become a necessity of State. The sanitation department it might be called and its primary object, the Washing of deserving Liberals and the Mending of their Hosiery, Mr Hogg,

of Masterton, to be the first Minister of the new department. The endeavours of the Unions to limit boy labour have met with a check in the award given in the Arbitration Court on the Wellington carpenters case. It was shown in the evidence given before the Conciliation Board in November that boys could best be taught the trade in the largo shops where doors and sashes arc made and regular hands employed, where each benchmun eould thoroughly teach ono boy; whereas the builders with intermittent work could not do justice to the lads. An endeavour was made to allow tiie factories to take a larger proportion of apprentices and so afford a means of educating our own boys in place of importing skilled labour. But the majority of the Board nded otherwise, and now Judge Williams has declined to make any award at all. The conciliation beacon is growing dimmer every time it is lit up.