WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1932, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

MINISTER OF FINANCE. HIS STILL FURTHER TASK. Special Correspondent. WELLINGTON, Jan. 22. ’ Though it is unlikely that any definite announcement will lie made concerning further demands upon tile taxpayers, great and small, before the return of tbe> Minister 01 Finance from his “conversation” at Honolulu with a representative of the Canadian Government concerning tariffs, it seems fairly certain that the provision of more money for the needs of the country will he one of the first tasks that will confront this custodian of the Treasury when lie takes up his daily routine again. Mr Stewart when he set out on his hurried mission let it be known that he was by no means satisfied that lie had provided for all the contingencies besetting his Department and niter developments have justified his appeal for caro and caution. There is no reason for panic or alarm, since a sane Government here is following the sound lead of the Mother Country, but there is obvious need for unanimity and courage.UNEMPL6YMENT. Ofie of tile most deplorable features of the Labour troubles that are afflicting the Dominion at the present time is the. faint-hearted fashion in which a large proportion of the workers who are lucky enough to obtain employment go about their jobs. This is a complaint almost everywhere, whether the lucky hands are taken 011 by local bodies or by private individuals, and it has been justified over and over again. Some of the workers have been frank enough to confess that they take as much tunc as they can over their work so that their pay may be prolonged, and even overseers have laughed at the idea of the average pick and shovel man extending himself at his work. There are working gangs within a few miles of Wellington at the present time that are not rendering day in and day out one half the service a private employer would demand ar.d secure. And thus the whole community suffers.

A BETTER WAY. In this connection it is only fair to say that the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, the Minister in charge of Unemployment, to quote the least happy of his Cabinet titles ,and the Hon E. A. Ransom, the Minister of Lands and Commissioner of State Forests, have made great progress in alleviating the conditions of unemployed workers; Air RaiisOlit was early iii the field with hit sehenle for placing suitable workers oil the kind dnd iff less than twd years lie lias done more to break ill "watte places” in the Dominion and prepare them for remunerative occupation than Mr. John Baihmee, Mr R. J. Seddon and Sir John McKenzie might have done in a decade. Mr Coates returned to office only two of three months ago and yet in this brief space of time lie has turned the eyes of many would be settlers to better prospects than could be obtained by pick and hovel.

ECONOMY. Though tho Hon. Robert Masters sits in the Legislative Council as Minister of Education, with a very warm concern for the welfare of the children of the Dominion, he would make no concession to a deputation that waited upon him yesterday with a request that he would continue a library grant of £l5O a year to the primary schools in Wellington. He pointed out to the members of the deputation that if £l5O were given to Wellington grants running on. to some £3500 a year would have to be conceded to other schools. Simply the country could not afford such privileges at the present time. Personally he regretted the withdrawal of the grant as much as did any member of the deputation, but for the present year, at any rate, the schools would have to be sati-fied with their existing libraries and their School Journal. The country’s Budget had to be balanced.