WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 158, 5 July 1921, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

CIVIC SERVICES. A QUESTION OF PAYiIENT. (Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. •; The "Evening Post," which rushed in, forget.ul of some of its previous professions, to support the new Mayor in his ■ policy of sparing the ratepayers at the . expense of the users of the civic services, is not finding it an easy matter to reconcile its new attitude with its old traditi_ns. A correspondent reminded it the other day that cheap trams and cheap electricity, recreation grounds and public parks, added to the value of private property within the city, and therefore, in part, were a legitimate charge upon the ratepayers. This is axiomatic with most economists of the present day. But tin"Post" has its doubts upon the point. —rguii lg that cheap services make for waste and. extravagance, and that, in any case, the will of the banker must be the deciding factor in shaping the City Council's financial policy. The banker laughs at t"his suggestion of his omnipotence, and it seems probable he Just as soon wcsuld have rates as he would services far his security, hut in these days the jS_rt of the scapegoat is not the strangest .of the roles he plays. WOOL CONTROL. The members of the newly-constituted : Wool Committee spent an anxious hour ;or two in conference with the representatives of the wool buyers on Saturday. The buyers at a meeting on the previous day had resolved that they would not bid at the approaching sales unless the limi- ! tation of offerings were abandoned, and lon Saturday morning it looked as if a i very serious crisis had been reached. It was reported that the American buyers, arguing that they should have an opportunity to satisfy the full requirements of their principals, were at the bottom of the trouble, and that they had persuaded the other outside buyers to stand firm. This was the position when the Committee and the representatives of the buyers met on Saturday morning, and it was not till well on in the afternoon that a better understanding was attained. Then it was announced that the buyers' ultimatum had been withdrawn so far as the sale being held to-day was concerned, and that further sales would be the subject of negotition. THE PRIME MINISTER SCORES. Mr. Massey's political supporters and personal friends are naturally gratified by the eulogy bestowed upon him by tbe "National Review," which, if not tbe most reliable echo of public opinion in the Mother Country, is at least the reflection of a large school of political thought. The Prime Minister's robust commonsense and vigorous personality are deserving of all the recognition they are obtaining from the British public and the British Press. But here there Is a growing feeling even among the Prime Minister's friends that the publicity officer attached to his retinue is Bomewhat over-anxious to do justice to his chief. No doubt M. CMemenceau, Mr. Massey, and Mr. Hughes would have managed the Peace negotiations somewhat differently from the manner in which Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson managed them, but comparisons of this kind become ill-mannered, if not 'obviously odious, when the British Prime Minister is dubbed Facing-Both-Ways ! and the ex-President the Highbrow from Washington. Mr. Massey certainly would not wish to be magnified at the j expense of these gentlemen.