WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12695, 15 November 1915, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

'.Special to the (lauiiini Mad.i Wellington. November I"2. MILITARY HUMOUR. Even war,. :is it seems from this distance and at this end of the world, has ;i-h passing humours. Whenever trans,ports are sent away with troop.s every newspaper in the country is solemnly warned by the- Chief of Staff that r * must say nothing about their ture. Of course, everyone knows they are going, and hundreds of relatives and friends: travel to Wellington to witness their departure; but ttic military authorities. as by rule and regulation provided, insists that the newspapers shall say nothing about the business till' fourteen days after the transports have sailed. Just what useful purpose this prohibition serves no one seems to kiiniv but it sounds very line and large and it tickles the ear of the small boy in tho .street, who might cheer if it were not iei fear of the Germans hearing. The people of Wellington have lost the art id' cheering since they put on the airs o' a military community and probably they will not shout themselves hoarse again till the football season is in fii.il .-■wing. WAT EE SI J) K WO R KERS. Timid people here are finding alarming significance in a resolution adopted :ivii meeting of the Waterside AYorke;- ( nion last night, to convene a confer- . nee of waterside workers throughout the Dominion in Wellington early next month for the purpose, as the reports supplied to tho newspapers say. of obtaining higher wages and better conditions. They see in the men's determination to get together for the discussion •d matters of mutual interest, the beginning of another great industrial: upheaval that will be disastrous to tho trade and commerce and social order o': the country. The sane section of labour, to which nine-tenths of the men engaged on. she wharves belong, laugh at these fears. They have had enough of strikes for a time at .any rate, they say, and till they have exhausted every means of peaceful settlement they are not- gijing to invite a repetition of their experiences of two yeans ago. The employers its a whole are treating them very fairly and though they have grievances, these are the outcome of the system of employment rather than of its administration. It is the system Ihev want- to change. NATION A E~n KG ISTER. It turns out that the efforts of the Government to obtain a national registe. of the men in the Dominion between I the ages of twenty and sixty,' have proved much more successful than was supposed a few days ago. Tt was reported that at the beginning of the week, only some 100,000 cards had been r< turned, while the number of men between the prescribed ages was estimated at about 300,000; but it is known thatthere are fully 300.00!) cards in the Registrar's ofiice. and that the number (if dilatory and careless people who have neglected to make their returns comparatively lew. It is expected that the counting and preliminary ehtssfication. of the returns will be completed by the middle of next week and that then the Government will be able to say what it intends to do with the information it has obtained. Mr Ah'Ssey has been talking lately its if compulsory service ive're quite among tiie possibilities of the future, and Mr Allen has followed in the same strain; but the general feeling here i- that- if the need for men were as well advertised in other centres as it is in Wellington, by the constant presence of khaki, there would be no lack of volunteer.- for many a long day. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. At Mr Humphrey's public demonstration of the use of the single transferable vote in obtaining proportional representation. the progressive electors turned up in good numbers -ami gave a very different complexion to the ballot, than the one -obtained at the £<.lect gathering of Ministers and officials on tile previou- day from papers specially marked-by an official of the Electoral Department. On that occasion Air Massey was placed at the head of the poll by a large majority, while .Mr Mr Allen and Mr Tlerdmau were next in order. At the Town Hall where the voting papers were marked by electors present, Air M'Combs was at the head of the. poll on the first count. Sir ■Joseph Ward second, Air Hindmarsh third and Air Massey fourth, while Mr Allen secured only eight first preferences and Air Herdman only two. Of course, there is no sginificance about the figures, beyond the light they throw upon the political tendencies of people who attend public meetings. STRIKE TALK. ' For days past there have been rumours Hying about the city concerning impending trouble on Hie waterfront in connection with the troopship Willcchra. The men were to precipitate the long-predicted .strike by refusing to let the vessel get away except on their own terms, troops-were to be brought down from Treutham to dragoon them into good behaviour, and troubles of all soiits and sizes were to j follow. The rumours were typical of scores of others that-have heen set. in I circulation by mischief-making people. But now it tranpircs that the whole trouble has been amicably settled by the owners accepting the men's reasonable interpretation of a pcrlectly straight-forward preference clause. A full complement of firemen, triinmets. and deck-hands-has been engaged' and the irresponsible gossips are now free to start, another story of a similar kind. I SUSPECTED EMIGRANTS.

The large number of steerage passengers of military age booked- by the Aloana last evening excited a good deal o! comment here, ou. the assumption that the young men were going to America to avoid any service that might be demanded of them by this country later on. One or two of them admitted -that- on consfieutious ami' other grounds, they objected to fighting and that they worn leaving rather than run the risk of having to do violence to their convictions. Alo.st of the others protested that they had business in America and that the possibility oi conscription being enforced in New had not influenced them at all. The matter was brought under tiie notice of Air Alns.sey, who indicated that steps might, he taken to prevent a similar exodus by the next steamer for San Francisco; but probably the philosophic waterside worker who shouted to the passengers lined along tiie deck that tho country would be bet-tor without men who ran away before t-lie fighting began, expressed the popular opinion in the community.