WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1922, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE RAILWAYS. COPING WITH OPPOSITION. SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. j WELLINGTON, March 24 The statement made by the Hon D. H. Guthrie at Hastings on Wednesday to the effect that the Railway Department is about to issue a new tariff which wilj enable it to cope more successfully with the opposition of the motor-car and the motor-lorry is being accepted here as an official admission that the policy of restricted services and high charges has failed. Wellington, as the great distributing port of the Dominion, for both passengers and goods, has suffered probably more acutely than any other centre from the attempts of the Government to make the railways pay by their savings and it is correspondingly jubilant over what it expects to prove a return to a sounder policy. The Acting Minister’s words were not quite definite and may have been intehcled to apply only to goods traffic, but there tvill he bitter disappointment here if they are not given a much wider application. To the local bodies it is of great importance that the heavy motor lorries should he got oft' the roads, but to the general public it is of more consequence tiiat an adequate railway service should be provided, / A TOUGH JOB. But whether the Department intends to attack only the motor lorry ot both the lorry nlid the car, it will find itself confronted by a fairly tough job. The lorry has extended its operations out of Wellington as far afield as New Plymouth and Taihape and apparently has got a firm and enduring hold on certain portions of the carrying business. One of the great advantages it offers to its patrons is, of course, the saving of handling at both ends. It picks up its load at the seller’s store and delivers it at the purchaser’s premises, thus cutting a substantial slice off the cost of transit. The motor car offers a similar advantage to the traveller with several others added. It meets him, say, at Marton on tine arrival of the Auckland mail train there and whisks him across to Wanganui a full two hours ahead of the' passenger who had changed into the “mixed” train at Palmerston North and made his way to the River City by that much economised conveyance. These conveniences are not going to'he readily surrendered. THE HEART OE A MINISTER. Though the penalties imposed upon T>r McGibbon, the late Health Officer at Auckland, by the Civil Service Commissioner for having spoken disfespect* fullv of the Hon C. J. Parr, the Minister of Public Health, are displayed under flaming headings in the newspapers this morning, tile public is not vet permitted to know the whole merits of the case. No doubt the doctor was very indiscreet in giving expression to his opinion of the Minister as he did, but to the outsider it looks as if he had a good deal- of provocation. Mr Parr, with all his zeal for service ami achievement, has aggravating little ways of his own. Just now, of all inoppoitune times lie could have chosen, he is forcing irritating rules and regulations, in addition to the oath of allegiance, upon the proprietors an 1 the teachers of private schools. The oath is a statutory requirement, but the rules and regulations are the creations of an Order-in-Council which seems to assume that private schools are more or less dangerous institutions that require very close watching. This is the sort of thing that breeds the very trouble it is intended'to suppress. “INDEPENDENTS.”

According to * surviving member of the “Old Liberal Party,” Mr Wilford’s insistence upon his candidates at the general election declaring unreservedly for the new Liberal-Labour combination is likely to land him into serious difficulties. The ettse of Mr James Crnigie, the sitting member for Tirnarn this authority says, may not be of much consequence, siilce Mr Cra> gie’s party position always lias been unstable, but there are a large number of Liberal and Labour aspirants Unparliamentary honours who will refuse in existing circumstances to be hound by any personal pledge. After the election, he explains, there may b in the new House oilier possible leaders of the new party‘than Mr Wiiford, and in that case Independents might give very useful assistance in making a choice. All this may not be very encouraging to the member for Hutt in his efforts to reunite tltt scattered progressive forces hut it certainly expresses the view of a large number of electors in this part of the Dominion at the present time.