N.S.W. AFFAIRS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19691, 7 August 1929, Page 18

N.S.W. AFFAIRS.

interview WITH VISITING 1 MINISTER. j i i [THE PRESS Special Ben-ice.] > AUCKLAND, August 6. I Showing marked disinclination to discuss the industrial and political ques- i tions in Australia to-day, the Hon, Mr .Farrar, 3-linister for Labour and Indus- j tries in the..New South Vales Government, arrived by the t'limaroa. Mr Farrar expects to leave for Wellington to-morrow to meet Si Joseph Ward, and he will return at the week-end to i-reet Mr T. R. Bavin, Premier of New South Wales, who is on his way home after n health-recruiting trip. Mr Farrar will return to Sydney with Mr Bavin on the Makura. One of the policy questions confronting the Government of New South Wales, Mr Farrar said, whs that affectinrr the civic government of Sydney. The Act under which the Commissioners were appointed to supersede the Lord Mavor and Municipal Council expired in October, and the Government would have to decide whether the term of the Commissioners was to be extended, local government restored, or some other system devised. So far as he could see there was no great public demand for the restoration of the old regime. There were hopes that the rain at the end of July would save the late wheat crops in the southern and western districts, said Mr Farrar, but at best the yield would be only about 30,000,000 bushels, or about half the normal high returns. This, with its consequent lower demand for transport and other workers engaged in handling wheat, plus coal and timber troubles, would have the effect of accentuating unemployment. The coal dispute was at present the subject of investigation by a Eoyal Commission, and Mr Farrar declined to comment on it, or state the outstanding issues between the coalowners and men.