WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 22 July 1916, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

PUBLIC WORKS

EARLY CLOSING

(Our Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON. July 13

No one outside the immediate ccufi

dencf of the Minister was expecting the Public Works Statement last night, and nc one. apparently, was greatly concerned about its contents when Mr Fraser laid it on the table of the House in the most casual manner possible and suggested that the Estimates might be taken on Fridav

next. Even to-day nc vast amount of interest in the document is being display ed, perhaps because it provides tor no new expenditure upon reads and biidges and post oflice clocks, but the humourists around the lobbies are pointing afresh their oid jests about the Minister’s promised economies by allusions to the fact that of the £1,838,201 he has at his disposal for the current year, only the odd £2Ol is to be saved from the maw of the clamorous elector. With party war-

fare suspended, this sort ct thing is

the legitimate sport of Mr Fraser’s many friends, and their banter is always accompanied by a whole-hearted recognition of the charm of his personal qualities. Ccming into office with' many protestations of their determination to keep the expenditure down, the Reformers lifted it up iu their first year from £2,340330 to £2,548,918. In their second year they increased it to £2,700.708. and in their third, in spite of the war, maintained it at £2,737,364. Last year, with the war still making its enormous demands upon the public purse, they thought £2,344,944 —an odd thousand or two more than the amount spent in 1912—a reasonable compromise, and now Mr Fraser is practising the cn forced virtue of spending no more than he has got. The situation certainly lends itself to the gentle art of the humourist. RAILWAY EXPENDITURE.

The only really big figures in the Pifhlic Works Estimates have to do with railway construction and additions to open lines, and even these are not of their former dimensions, simply because the exigencies of the times have compelled the Minister to cut his coat according to his reduced supply of cloth. There will be grumbling, of course, over the alocation of the money available for this class of work, and in normal times there might be room for some imputations of party favours; but people acquainted with the needs of the North Auckland district and the East Coast district will not cavil over the comparatively generous treatment they have received. North Auckland got all its vote expended last year, a total of £141,000 odd, and this year it is given £92,000, while the Midland Railway was £IO,OOO or £II,OOO short in its expenditure of £93,000 and this year is allotted only £O9 000 The East Coast Main Trunk absorbed some £123.000 last year, certainly not a penny more than was its due, and for the current year ig given £102,000, which ought to be fully spent. Outsiders freely admit that this is the most important railway work in progress in the Norm Island at the present time, and if its prosecution had been accompanied by a comprehensive land acquisition and settlement policy, money spent upon its completion would have been a splendid investment for the country. Most of the criticism levelled against the Government's proposals is along these lines. Land acquisition should have preceded railway construction, and settlement would have followed so speedily that the expenditure would have been handsomely remunerative from the first. Unhappily the Avar has intervened to give the Reformers an excuse for contmu- j ing their traditional policy and to pre vent the Liberals making any effective protest against its perpetuation, i THE ENIGMA OP THE HOUSE. The ways of Mr John Payne are inexplicable. One of the best informed . men in the House, one of the widest j read and one of the most kindly dlsposed, ho seems at times to have no j sense of responsibility, no idea of pro- j portion, no regard for his own dignity 1 or for the susceptibilities of other ! people. He has not even the excuse 1 of a hasty temper. When he is saying his hardest things, whe>n he is making the most outrageous charges against politicians, when he is impugn- | ing their motives, or even their per- ' sonal honesty, he huparts no rccr.j bitterness to his words than he woml if he were upbraiding a friend for failing to keep a social engagement. His outbreak last night was particularly deplorable. He had worked himself up as best he could to a semblance of indignation against the exemption of , war debentures from income tax. He i had discussed the question before in 1 a perfectly sane and orderly fashion j when supporting Mr Wilford’s protest , against au arrangement which quit? a number of members regarded with disfavour. But apparently he imagin- s ed he would not have done justice, to • his reputation at a daring student of • finance unless he did something spec- i tacular. He . anted to be sure of having done what he tohugbt to be his (

whole duty. ‘An* Minister who would bring fi .wfrg such a proposition a s this,” he shouted during the course of his speech, “is one of the biggest traitors to the British Empire. The ineitable demand from the Speaker for the withdrawal of the expression brought only the retort, “I never save air thing so damnable in all my life,” and a prompt refusal. Aider this', only one course was open to Sir Joseph Ward, who lias been leading the Reuse during Mu- Massey's illness, and Mr Pay u 1 was excludd from the remainder of the sitting. It is a thii--snnd pities that a member capable of doing so much excellent work should persis; in methods which con appeal no more to his own bott-r sense than they do to the sympathy of his follow members. LAEH CRITICISM. One oi the worst results of such extravagant language as Mr Payne and ine oi' two other members of the Laboar group occasionally employ is that ii males loss impetuous members of the House (li.uncined to voice their o\. ,i ciuicism of the Government's proposals. Old hands like Mr Wilford. Mr Ism, Mr Witty. Mr Nidcy, Mr Lmitn and (Pliers are not deterred from expressing their opinions by any fear of identifying tb-unsolves with the fire’.brands sitting on the back benches, but younger members, whose views might help the House very well may think it desirable to move wariy in such company. The very point which Mr Payne attacked with such inexcusable warmth is quite an arguable one. I here are very high authorities.

pilio strongly deprecate the exemption jof war loans from the payment of in‘como tax. It must be said for Sir both here and in the Mother Country, ■Joseph Ward in this connection, by i'the way, that lie treated Mr Payne j with the very greatest forbearance itook the extreme step only when 'throughout last night’s incident, and nothing else could save the dignity of j the House.