WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 228, 24 September 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE COAX DISPUTE. SATISFACTORY SETTLEMENT. (Spem* Correspondent./ WELLINGTON, Monday. There is a general feeling of relief here at the settlement of the coal dispute on a basis that promises to prove stable and satisfactory to both parties. The fuel question in both its industrial and domee-j tic aspects has been causing a good deal j Of inconvenience and anxiety for months! past, and the city is breathing easier for : knowing the trouble is ended. It is hoped, too, that the better relations which have been established between the mine and the men by concession on both sides will prevent a recurrence, of tho trouble. The conference which preceded the final settlement can hardly help being wide-reaching in its results, and | may even lend to the adoption of a sys- j teni of conciliation by mutual concession whicli ultimately will supersede the statutory tribunals altogether. That., i however, m looking rather far ahead. For the present the community is content with being grateful for what has happened. THE TIfvMWAY TROUBLE. The tra.niwiry trouble etill remains with the people of Wellington, and at the j moment seeine likely to pass through, more aerioue stages "before a settlement | Ls reached. The men, like the miners, I and, for the matter of that, like all f workers who arc demanding higher wages, are basing their case on the increased coet of living, and co far are not without a considerable measure of public sympathy. They are not threaten ing. n strike, but tl ey .ire actually practising the "go slow" alternative. The car service has been reduced in consequence of the motormen and conductors refusing to work overtime, and the service that remains is running irregularly. The City Council's offer <>f a 10 per cent, bonus has been rejected, and tbe men are stand- . ing tirnily to their demand for a mini-, mum wajp of 1/4 an hour. The Mayor states this would menu an additional expenditure of £12,000 a year, and the men retort thie would represent merely their additional expenditure upon the. necessaries of life. THE lIY-ETJECTIOK. The cost of living, it ie now more plain than ever, is going to be made the chief bone of contention in the Wellington Central campaign. The nomination of candidates is taking place to-day, and though it is provable one or two of the gentlemen who have announced theniBclves may restrain their vaunting ambition at the last moment, it is pretty certain there -will be three or four candidates on one side raging at the <Joverament for not having kept dnwn the price of bread and incut and <butter and the rest, and only one on the other Bide emphasising the adv&ntascs New Zealand enjoys in this respect. Mr. Ilildreth, the Governments nominee, has not yet taken the public platform, but it is reported that he is making good headway in the constituency, and that he will not prove the "dumb dog" the people who want to saddle him with all the sine of hie sponsors are making him out to be. LAND SETTLEMENT. The telegraphed summary of the Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald's remarks at GLsborni! on the subject of land settlement lias attracted a good deal of attention here, and is taken in some quarters to indicate a great forward movement in the land policy of the Government. This 1« a subject on which the members of the National Cabinet could not be expected to see exactly eye to eye, and an inevitable result of their differences of opinion has been to keep it in the background during the last few years. Hut Mr. 1). H. CJuthrie succeeded to the port- ' folio of Land* with ideas of hie own, not ■ necessarily in entire accordance with > those of his predecessors in oflice, und • people who may be supposed to too in hie i confidence declare he has measures in i preparation iwhich will make for the ■ closer occupation and more profitable • employment of the land of th».' country. ■ In any effort of the kind he may l>r sure ; of the cordial support *of his colleague. > the Minister of Agriculture. 1 .^___^__ —