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Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18571, 25 November 1920, Page 6

The new Publio Works policy of concentration—if there is such a polioy—• will not please everybody. One of the railway lines affected, like most lines, has two ends. The Ohura end, where work is to proceed with all possible expedition, interests Auckland; the Tahora end, where work is to he discontinued, interests Taranaki. Hitherto there has been some sort of alliance between the Auckland and Taranaki agitators for railways, but there are now prospects of disagreement. The good people of Taranaki have urged the Auckland Railways and Development League to do some agitating on behalf of Tahora. Probably they think Mr Cheal and bis friends in the northern city may have sufficient influence to soften the heart of the Minister and persuade him to relax his concentration polioy so far as Tahora is concerned. Recently Taranaki wrote to Auckland in quite a candid spirit, saying that if Auckland waß not helpful to Taranaki there would arise a contest between the rest of New Zealand and Auckland!

This appears to have proved imprcs' sive, for Auckland recalled that nt a deputation some time ago the Minister gave an assurance that " Tahora would not be left out in the cold," and it was decided to reply to Taranaki with quotations from a verbatim report of the deputation. This is very kind of Auckland, no doubt, but if the intentions mentioned in the Public "Workß Statement are carried out Tahora will be " left out in the cold," the verbatim report notwithstanding. .In that case Taranaki will, apparently, bo disposed to recognise the facts of the situation, the principal fact being, in regard to public works, that it is actually a question between Auckland and the rest of New Zealand. It will not be surprising if wo see this realisation spreading to Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay, for the Gisborne-Wairoa railway is among the victims of the new policy of concentration—again we say, if there is such a policy, which time alone can tell. Some day the rest of New Zealand will wake up and demand justice. The march of events will lead everybody this side of Mount Ruapehu to the knowledge that the principal meaning of the word " concentration," as it is being applied to the construction of publio works, iB concentration in the Auckland province. The truth has already got as far north as Taranaki.

Mr Harold Beauohamp, chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, in an interview published in the " New Zealand Times" on Tuesday, indicated the adoption by banks in the Dominion of a policy definitely hostile to the maintenance of present inflated values of land. "We may look," he said, "for an effect of the policy of the banks in respect to land values, as no money will be forthcoming from the banks to enable people to purchase at present inflated prices. Indeed, it would bo difficult to find money for the acquisition

of land, even at moderate values, as it will be the policy of the banks to keep their funds in as liquid a form aB possible, and not make advances on what would be considered in ordinary times as mortgage investments." If the hanks maintain this polioy, which is manifestly in their own interests, they may do something to stabilise land values and save farmers from bankruptcy, but we should regard the future more confidently if Mr Massey were not going to re-enter tho land market with £6,000,000 to spend and an advertised willingness to pay current inflated prices.

A forecast of th/c report of Mr Justice Edmunds, who was asked by tho New South Wales Government to make a recommendation on the delicate question of the salaries of members of Parliament, shows that the Judge is expected to accept the Federal " salarygrab " as the right and proper basis for the remuneration of parliamentarians. The comedy of the whole business is heightened by the fact that the Judge took evidence ifi an Arbitration Court. We are told that the evidence was all in favour of a very high salary—at least £IOOO a year—and tho source of it may he gathered from that fact. Tho New South Wales Parliament, alarmed by the storm of protest against the Federal Parliament voting its members £IOOO per annum, but hankering for honey from the same pot, hit upon the device of getting a Judge of the Supreme Court to sit as a Royal Commission. By all accounts the Government found it difficult to get a Judge to accept the task, but a Judge has been found, and ho has, it would seem, come to tho conclusion that was desired of him. Honour 13 satisfied, and £IOOO per annum will most probably henceforth be the New South Wales parliamentarian's " basic wage." It is to be trusted that the New Zealand Parliament will not feel called upon to emulate this new Australian fashion.