AN INTERVIEW WITH MR ALEXANDER WILSON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 89

AN INTERVIEW WITH MR ALEXANDER WILSON.

IMPRESSIONS OF WELLINGTON,

THE PARLIAMENTARY SESSION.

Mr Alexander Wilson, editor of the New Zealand Times. Wellington, who is well known in Dunediu, is at present spending a holiday in this city, and when waited upon by one of our stuff on the 6th, he niade some interesting remarks concerning his impressions of a year's residence in the Empire City. Our reporter asked : After spending a year in Wellington, Mr Wilson, how does it strike you as a city? " I am very greatly impressed." said Mr Wilson, " with the rapidity of the growth of Wellington. When all the suburb's are compactly formed into one city — Greater Wellington — I think it will be one of the mest important cities south of the line. There is a very large amount of building going on in all directions. There are important buildings being erected in the centre of the town on the area of the great fire of last year. The city 13 gradually creeping out on to the hiiis and into the vallej*. It is my opinion that, until the Cify Council wakes up to the necessity of itself acquiring tho land on the outskirts of the city and laving it off with a view to having a well-planned and well-laid-out town, the building" and extension of the city wili go on in a haphazard way. In Continental cities the municipalities have awakened to the necessity of themselves controlling the extension beyond the city limits. They have bought thejand, laid it out. and provided reserves for public purposes, such as schools, gymnasiums, and so on. and in that way they prevent the mere contractor, who thinks of nothing but the return he gets for his expenditure, from erecting what must ultimately turn into slums. The part of the city of Wellington already built affords endless lessons of the unwisdom of allowing a. 01 ty to be laid out by contractors and private owners of land. The effect of rating on unimproved values in Wellington has been, in my opinion, most disastrous. Instead of the houses having an area of ground round them — a , necessary area for sanitary purposes, — all the back gardens have been built upon, with narrow lanes leading in some cases to very large houses. Land values, as everybody knows, ha%'e reached a very high figure — too high. I think, because tho land on the outskirts is be^ng exploited by syndicates and so on ; and the consequence is a rate of value that I should think would not ultimately be maintained. Of course, no one can see the issue of that. One thing that I think is noticeable in Wellington, and that must strike everybody who goes there, is the very complete municipalisation of various servieesi The enly big . c er\ice that the municipality has not got now seems to mo to be the gas service. We .have the electric service, the trams, and so on. and the tendency is clearly towards what might be called socialistic municipalisation. I think that municipal affairs are well-managed in Wellington. The Mayor (the Hon. T. W. Hislop) is a \ery capable and very industrious man, and I think he is well seconded by the councillors. Where I do not think they aro quite alive to_ their duties is in connection with the city reserves — the hills round Wellington, which have been left in a comparatively unkempt condition. In order to put them, into such a state as would allow the citizens to make full use of them it would require a large amount of expenditure. In the meantime considerable expenditure is boingincurred in the formation of recreation grounds in the city. I tised to think that the Dunedin Corporation did not do nearly enough for its Town Belt, but I think it does a good deal more than Wellington does, although the Wellington people spend a good deal of money on the recreation grounds inside the city." Wihat can you say about the patent slip transaction ?

"I see a statement in to-day's Otago Daily Times to the effect that the Harbour Board is going to offer some objection to the acquisition of the patent slip by any other corporation than itself, but I have no knowledge of the powers it may have to compel a surrender of the patent slip to the board, although, of course, the Loard may, for all I know, see its way to do something m this direction. Thete is no use den}-ing that from the point of view of the Harbour Board the loss of the patent slip is a. very discomforting occurrence, because it is the only part of tho foreshore that won't be entirely within then- jurisdiction. If it lo^e control of that there will be nothing for it but possibly to construct a patent slip of its own near the new dock, i On the other hand, it may be said that the Harbour Board had- its opportunity, and that everybody fGek that if it comes under the control of the Union Steam Ship Company the company will make very good use of it. I do not suppose there is any nece-sity for fearing that the Union Company will stand in the way of other companies utilising the slip for their repairs unlesi it should find that its own business is able fully to utilise it. which, I think, is unlikely. The news of the acquisition of the controlling interest by the Union Company made a great sensation in 'Wellington. The Harbour Board was completely taken by surprise. As the chairman put it, the board had been living in a fool* paradise. If the advice of its secretary and engineer (Mr Ferguson) had been taken the patent slip would have been acquired by the Harbour Board some time ago."

I understand there as a scheme on foot for a large extent of reclamation at Evans Bay?

''Yes: when the reclamation take 1 - njaee there will be, something like 130 acre-, made available for the extension of business premises and the erection of factories of ail kinds, with a lino of wharves in deo-p water. So that at Kilbirnio there? should be an amount of shipping that will be. as it were, a rival to that at the Queen's wharf. Reclamation »eems at the Dre«cnt moment to be the crying need of Wellington, and certainly if ambition. Important Industrie*? inside the city are finding themselves «enou-!y cramped for lack of room to make the necessary extensrons. aiid unlo-js thei«-i« «ome such reclamation it h'nor ea-iy to «cc where they can find the neeo»ary space." How were you •impr^s*od- with the work done by Parliament last .*e*s;on?

'■ Of course, I watched Parliament very keenly. I wa-5 tlun-e, especially in the first half of the session, sometimes twice a day, and I was there almost every day looking on pnd listening to what went on, sometimes in tho Legislative Council and eometime.s in the Hou«e. One thing that particularly -struck rue was v. hat I cannot

help" considering 1 the improved quality of the Legislative Council, and that I attribute to the excellent «e l ection that, on the whole, the- 'loverpiiier.t made in its late" appoin:mcnr=. and also r o the lead that wa.3 given tho Chamber by the Hon. Dr Findlay. Attorney-general, who was new to the work at tho beginning of the session, but has made his mark on the politics of tho country. I think that probabh- you would' hay«! to go back o cor.«3iderable number of years before you fcund a Legislative Assembly of an eqnallv high average with that of - the Assembly of last session. As resrards the tl.ree members appointed from Dunedin — the Hon. Mr Sinclair, the Hon. Mr Catlan. and tbo Hon. Mr Paul — so far as I cotjki learn they made tin excellent impression. Both Mr Sinclair and Mr Callan ara Hkely to be amongst the most serviceable men in the Council, their knowledge of law enabling them to be frequently of service in the discussion of ran jus matters. Mr Paul also made a very good first appearance. He delivered a particularly good speech in reply to remarks of the Hon-. Mr Rigg reflecting on the- want of independence in ihe -newly-appointed members. If there is any fault to be found with the Councrl it was not that they, did not "discuss measures, but that they sometimes di»cu?tsed them a little too much, rather as if they were appealing to a constituency- something like their friends in_ the T ower Rou^. The work of the Lower House was enormously interesting, because of the extremely prolific character of the legislation and tho large number of important measures that were passed. * I do not know any year in which you would find such a large record as that of the session that has just closed. Of course, towards the end there was a good deal of rapid work done, as there always is — it seems to be incurable, — because members will not remember at the beginning of the session that there i* a great deal to be done, and. of course, there is a certain 6ection of the House whioh does not want a great deal to bo doae. and which therefore wastes the early part of the session in useless talk, with the result that important measures at the end do not get the amount of consideration to which they are entitled. But for all that, to apply the term " legislation by exhaustion," which I have 6een applied to it, is erronepus, because it 16 a feature of tho session that such early hours were observed that there was not a tithe of the exhaustion that characterised previous 6ession-3. I do not know, but I suppose if an average were struck the House was not kopt much later than midnight the whole session through. I cannot say that I waa very much impressed by any single debate that I heard in the Lower House. I do not mean to say by that that I did not hear a <jood debate, but there was no particular debate that stands out in my mind as impressive or particularly worth remembering. There was a gocd deal of trivial talk, and the extent to winch members could wander from the question w;i§ unbelievable. But somehow the measures seemed to get ventilated, and to get passed in the end. As regards the members of the Ministry, and tha reputation they ha.c in Wellington, the Hon. Mr M'Nab has, of ctfuree, niado a reputation for himself as d good speaker and a clear thinker. Two of the men who certainly made a most favourable impression as Tegarde promise were the Hon. J. A. Millar, who is thought to bo a particularly strong man, and who crowned himself with glory by his tariff measure, and the Hon. Dr Findlay. Attor-nev-areneral, who has- certain qualities that make him of great value to the Ministry, an.l who commanded the universal respect of the Council as the representative of the Government in the Upper House. Of the speakers in ih© House, I am not sure that the Hon. Mr Carroll ie not the man who ha« the greatest gifts in respect of oratory. He i« particularly clear and facile, and has a copious vocabulary at his fingers' ends. His ideas are clearly marshalled, and if he happens to be sufficiently worked up he can fuse and glow. The ■w ittiest man in the House — the readiest with his shafto — is Mr Wilford. His interjections are often extremely amusing and, generally speaking', appropriate. But my imprebsion vfo.-, that it does not tako an exceedingly brilliant joke to amuse Parliament."

Do you see any difference in Dunedin si noe \ou left it?

" I think it is more beautiful than ever, although before I left Wellington I was inclined to think that if it had the rightlight upon it there are few places on this sphere that could I>eat Wellington for picturesqueneae. But from the point of view of beauty, Dunedin certainly seems to hold its own, and it is more beautiful this year than I have ever seen it. so green and fresh. All the province of Otago, from the Wanaki southwards, has the same lush and fertile appearance. The amount of traffic on the streets certainly strikes me a« considerably les3 than that I have grown accustomed to in Wellington. I obseive a considerable number of buildings seeing on. That opposite the Otago Daily Tunes Offices strikes me as one of the handfiompflt business buildings I have seen south of the lino. I regard it as quite a feature of the town. It looks w>" t Tresh and new in its architecture, and the bricks are so ta-'ofiilly eet. It roa.lly shown what architectural uses brick can be put to. I could not belie\e that an v thin a; so handsome could be n>ade out of this medium. The Bank of Australabia, an Oamaru stone building', is \ory handsome a« far as it goer-, but it seems to me to want another couplo of 6tore\-5 to finish it off. I have also oeen with pleasure that a substantial buiMmsr has been erected for the Public Art (iallery. I have r;ot been in it yet, but I intend to \L*it it before I leave. The RailviSy Station, which was only opened when I left, scorns to be a great boon to the city. It is a very different thing arriving now in Dunedin from what it used to bo in the days of the old station. "What little I have seen of the suburbs seem* to me to indicate that extension is still going on there, though it is not going on at anything like the rate that it 19 in Wellington, and I should hope that land t-i!uc6 have not reached the same height." Our reporter thanked Mr Wilson for .-ome interesting "copy."

Orange* aro fairl to ho very pYn'i'u! on the Hastings River (N.S.W.). and ai >' falling from the trees in nwria<l« (-'■■ - a contemporary)- ~La*t week a *ott!er 10-ifc a valuable bullock through, its too vigorous application to the fruit.