WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 105, 3 May 1917, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ALLEGED SEDITION. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT ARRESTED. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON. May 2. The arrest of Mr. P. C. Weira, M.P., on a charge of having used seditious language in one of his recent speeches at Greymouth was not altogether unexpected here. What may be his fate, o r what should be, cannot, of course, he discussed just now, but his arrest will help to remove the popular delusion that members of Parliament are allowed a wider privilege of speech in their private capacity than are less exalted members of the community. Except on the floor of the House they enjoy no greater liberty in this respect than does the humblest of their constituents. Even Ministers of the Crown are subject to the provisions of the War Regulations they have framed under the authority of the" statute, and upon them falls tbe responsibility of seeing the law is administered with absolute impartiality. REMISSION OF SENTENCES. The two local morning newspapers strongly condemn the action of the Government in asking the Governor to remit the sentences imposed by the magistrate at Auckland on the men convicted under the War Regulations of complicity in the slow-work movement. The "Dominion" says the Government is being led from one false step to another as the result of its bargaining with the law-breaking coal miners, and declares it is quite time the men were made to realise the limit of endurance has been reached. The "New Zealand Times'" centres its attention upon the representations made by the counsel for the Crown at the court'proceedings, and says they placed the Government in "the most disgraceful position in which any Government nas stood since settled government was established in New Zealand." Local opinion seems to largely endorse the opinion of the newspapers, much of it emphatically, and the Ministerial delegates to the West Coast are having much pungent criticism a-dded to their other troubles. THE MINISTER'S EXPLANATION. The Acting-Prime Minister anticipated much of this criticism in a statement he issued for publication last night. Even those who may not regard it as convincing will at least admit that it shows an honest desire on the part of Ministers to discharge to the full their compact with the men. Sir James Allen denies that the Government had the slightest intention of interfering with the functions of the magistrate, and points out that this was made perfectly clear during the court proceedings in Auckland. It simply had agreed not to press for penalties in these particular cases, and now in order to give effect to the spirit as well as the letter of the agreement it was asking for the remission of the sentences which the magistrate quite properly imposed. Exceptional measures were justified by exceptional circumstances, and the result, he hoped, would be an amicable and permanent settlement of the trouble. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. The story that the representative of a syndicate of capitalists were prepared to take over the State mines at a valuation and work them as a private enterprise was generally regarded as a canard •when it was published on Monday morning, but it appears now that it has a very substantial basis of fact in an offer made to the Minister of Mines by Mr. J. B. Laurenson and Mr. R. Wilson. These gentlemen, on behalf of their principals. are prepared to buy the mines outright or to work them on the royalty system. The Minister has not yet given any very serious consideration to the matter, apparently regarding it rather as a gibe at State management than a preliminary to actual business, and at the moment he is not disposed to enter upon a discussion of the relative merits of State and private enterprise.