WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 February 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

RAILWAY ROLUNU BTJMJK.

COMMISSIONS.

CSpecial Correspondent.) WELLINGTON.. February 21. In these stirring times the community is ’ not easily interested in any question nil connected with J the war, many people in Wellington are beginning to take notice of a commission that has been sitting heie .for a week or more enquiring into the condition of the rolling stock on tlio Government railways. Tin's commission was set up in consequence of some remarks made by Mr. Wilford in the Houge of Representatives last session implying that much of the rolling stock had fallen into a sad state of disrepSir and was becoming a menace to the safety of the travelling public/ The Minister promised to obtain a departmental report on the subject and in due course the House was asuved that toe rolling stock wag in excellent order and that every provision was made for maintaining it in this condition. But apparently the-, general manager wanted further vindication of his administration and the appointment of the" commission was the result. Now the commission is being flooded with iterated and reiterated official statements in support of the report presented to the House and its members are about to start out upon ft comprehensive tour of the Dominion in search of further evidence of the same character. Of course, the personnel of the commission is an assurance that the enquiry will be exhaustive, but it is occurring to many people that the appointment of one independent expert to make persona] examination of the rolling stock and the work of the repairing department would have obtained equally god results at about ,ono quarter the cost of the present arrangement, THE HAWKE'S B,VY SEAT, It, c-eenia now that the demonstration «>f tallier narrow local feeling v.-hieli led Sir John Findlay to renounce his intc-n----t'on ( f contesting the hy-oleotion for the Hawke's Bay seat was o’ very litt-e tea! significance and that nothing now stands in the way of Sir John re-enter-ing l.’ e field as the accepted Liberal comlhiate approved by the National Cabinet under the arrangement between the parties. He will return to the constituency, at-onco and will spend most of the timebetween this and tiie polling, whether there is to he a contest or not, in making himself hotter known to the electors. Aparently the only danger that would, confront him in the event of n contest would he the apathy cf the voters on both sides. This danger was unpleasantly exemplified at the Pahiatua ' election, where an independent -Liberal candidate who insisted upon standing in spite of the strongest discouragement from the party leader,-ran the Ref rm candidate approved by the National Cabinet to with in a few hundred votes and probably would have beaten him but for the obtrusion of a Labour candidate, But it is improbable anything of this sort will happen in Hawke’s Bay. The attpnmt to oust Sir John Findlay from the field has put Ids friends on th dr mettle and. they arc not likely to spare any effort in returning him by a substantial majorh v. LABOUR. ■ Tim position on the water front is still far from satisfactory, the -existing relations between the employers and tinmen being rather of the nature of an armed (nice than of a friendly armistice, and no one can say what the next development will be. The men on their part declare they abide by any reasonable agreement that may be reached in a. regular way. The trouble in connection with the “Burton block-tackle”, which seemed, likely, a day or two ago, to bring matters to a head, has’ been submitted to the arbitration of a special dispute committee consisting of two representatives of the employers and two representatives of the mon with a chairman selected by tlie four nominated members and the decision qf this tribunal ig likely to bo made known this evening. Meanwhile the shipping in port is being worked with rather more good-will than was the case a few week's ago, and the general outlook ig less disquieting. Many of the men profess to see in the war regulations giving the Government .power to take over the control of the wharves a disposition on the part of the authorities to deal directly with any trouble that.may arise and their contemplaton of the prospect does not appear to be lessening their desire to maintain the peace. FARMERS AND THE WAR, Numbers of farmers called up by the ballot are finding considerable difficulty in making araligaments for the managermvit of their properties during their absence from the country, The matter lias been discussed by many branches of the Farmers’ Union and various suggestions have been made for giving the men assistance, but none of the suggestions appear to meet the needs of particular cases and Mr. ,T. A. Young, the member foi Waikato, has come to Wellington as the renresentative of tile Awumutu Farmers’ Union Federation with a proposal tha.t the Government should purefiase the properties of men going to the war and re-sell them to returned soldiers on terms that would be fair to both parties. In the absence of the Acting Prime Minister, Mr. Young interviewed the members of the industrial Efficiency Board yesterday and learned that the Board £ had already-submitted a scheme on somewhat similar lines to tbei Government. This scheme aims rather at keeping the farmer-soldaei’s in possession of inbir I properties than at putting new occupiers in their place. If this is the case it will meet wth more general approval than will the proposal put forward by Mr. Young’s principals.