WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 212, 8 September 1930, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SIR 0. NIEMEYER'S VISIT.

DISMISSED TELEGRAPHISTS

NEED OF NEW REGULATIONS,

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, September 4.

The Hon. W. P. Reeves, the New Zealand journalist and politician, who left the Dominion some 30 years ago to carve out a career for himself in the ■wider fields of the Old Country, seems after all to have been the first authority to suggest that Sir Otto Niemeyer, while at this end of the world, should be invited to New Zealand. Speaking as chairman at the annual meeting of the National Bank of New Zealand in London just a few weeks ago, he suggested that the Dominion might share with the Commonwealth the advantages of Sir Otto's visit. "I should imagine," he said, "that this gentleman may be asked by the New Zealand Government to extend his journey to as far as Wellington, and it is much to be hoped that he may find it possible to do so."

It is not Mr. Reeves' fault that he did not remain in the service of the Dominion, and he still retains a warm regard for its welfare. The High Commissioner. Sir Thomas Wilford has not been long in mastering his duties at the High Commissioners office, and a letter received from him by the latest mail suggests that they are both multitudinous and exacting. The London Naval Conference, at which he met daily for nearly three months representatives from Great Britain, America, Italy and France, interested him greatly and gave him an enlarged idea of the size of the world and the multiplicity of its people. One or two extracts from a personal letter may be permitted. "Only a few weeks ago," Sir Thomas writes, "Signor Grandi, the head of the Italian Delegation, sent me his portrait, asking me to keep it in remembrance of many happy hours spent together," "Briand," he adds, "is certainly the cleverest man at a conference that I have so far met." Sir Thomas* endorses the view expressed by other travellers that New Zealanders are well thought of in London.

Dismissed Telegraphists. The discussion concerning the dismissed telegraphists in the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon was not particularly edifying in itself, the talking being confined almost

entirely to the immediate sufferers; but it at least revealed the need for a thorough overhaul of the Post and Telegraph regulations and their bearing upon members of the staff. Several of the members of the House who took part in the discussion seemed to think it was only a trivial offence for a member of the telegraph staff to make use of a "private" wire to transmit information concerning bettng to a racecourse or elsewhere. This loose view of illicit gambling certainly should not be encouraged in public offices, or, for the matter of that, elsewhere; but should be denned and the offenders dealt with accordingly. It would seem from the discussion in the House on Wednesday that this distinction was ignored.

Gambling in General. Earlier in the day a very representative deputation had waited upon the Hon. E. A. Eansom, the acting-Prime Minister, with a request that he would exercise his influence as head of the Government to restrict the issue of art union tickets and to prevent the facilities for further gambling contemplated by the promoters of the Gaming Amendment Bill now before Parliament. The Gaming Amendment Bill, which was committed to the care of the late Sir George Hunter two years ago, aims mainly at the extension of the operations of the totalisator, by the admission of investments to the racecourse by telegraph and otherwise; but there is to-day less enthusiasm in respect to this concession than there was two or three years ago, and it is doubtful if it would

be endorsed by the present Parliament. Sir George Hunter would have been a tower of strength in commending the Bill to Parliament; but there is no one in the present House who would exercise the same influence in placing the measure on the Statute Book.