WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1919, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

SOLDIERS AND THE LAND,

PRELIMINARY TRAINING

(Our Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, July -1

'flic Minister of Lands and his colleagues have good -reason to bo disappointed by the very poor success that lias attended their efforts to induce returned soldiers to enter upon a course of training in rural pursuits preparatory to. taking up laud on their own account. How poor this success has been, may be judged from a letter addressed by the Hon. D. 11. Guthrie, yesterday o a leading business man in Wellington who, unaware of what Government was doing in this direction, had urged the Minister to set aside suitable blocks of land on which soldiers might he employed and obtain some rudimentary knowledge of agricultural operations. The fact that this gentle man did not know of the Government’s efforts may suggest one reason why they have not been more successful. ‘ SCHOOL AND NO PUPILS.

The soldiers themselves however, have had particulars of these training farms placed before them again and again, and their failure to respond in much greater numbers to the Minister’s invitation is simply inexplicable. ‘‘Some areas already have been set apart for training on the lines suggested by you,” Mr Guthrie explains to his correspondent, “ and it is intended to operate them when the soldiers show the inclination to submit to the training. So far, however, the response has not been sufficient to warrant putting the work in hand. J may sav, also, flint one estate in Canterbury was offered to the Patriotic Society, which advertised for soldiers, but could not get them.'’ The Minister’s correspondent, thinks this an astounding state of affairs, and is anxious to know what (lie returned soldiers have to say in the matter. MINING AND MINERS.

The Coal Mine Owners’ Association concluded its silting hero yesterday without making any of its major conclusions public. It has agreed to meet the representatives of the Coal Minors’ Federation, after the individual companies have had sufficient, opportunity to consider the effect of the demands made by the men. and it has suggested that the conference between the parties should be open to the Press. While waiting for further .development* public opinion certainly is inclining (

more to the owners’ sido than it has done before. The men's demands that no shift shall work longer than seven hours, bank to bank, are not of a kind to find favour with a community in the throes of a coal famine. The owners, on th e other hand, are showing a sweet spirit of reasonableness which has gone far to win for them the sympathy of the “crowd.” GOST OF LIVING.

A table published by the “Dominion” this morning comparing the retail prices of August 1906 with those of July 1919 has set people talking again of the cost of living in terms by no means complimentary to the authorities who are : supposed to control, such matters. Bread during the interval of thirteen years has advanced from 3d to 5d per 21b loaf, jam from 4d. to 63d per lb, oatmeal from 1/- to 2/7J per 71b bag, kerosene from 4/- to 9/- per tin, bacon from old to 1/1 per lb (the cheapest cuts), coal from 7/6 to 15/- per quarter ton, fish from 2d. to 6d„ 8d and 1/per lb and other articles of daily use in the same proportion. There is grow- • ing feeling among the public, as the shoe pinches harder, that the Government is largely responsible for these increases and that the Board of Trade has utterly failed to alleviate the position.