WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1916, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

STARTLIXCI STORIES.

t-!QUOR AND PROHIBITION

U'Voni Out Own Correspondent)

g Wellington, October l ). t The i npleasant stories that have been o reaching Wellington lately concerning ~ the aVnse of liquor by the natives on e the East Coast received startling eont firmacion from a deputation of Anglican t clergymen that waited upon the'lion. •- Willian Erase; and the Hon. G. W. ) P.ussl'.l in Gisborne last week The - troubU of course, is not a new one. f From the very earliest days of Euroy pean settlement down tc the present 0 time the Maori's addiction to strong - drink has been one of the gravest obe stacUv to his" progress along the path e to b-ncfieent civilisation. But it was » comparatively recently developments of - the ci! that the deputation brought e unde.- the notice of the Ministers. One t revercrd gentleman told of a tangi in i which tin cases of whisky had been eon- - sumej in the course of a day or two. - "He had seen young Maori girls fif.ecn t years (.'. age lying in a state of almost v nudity dead drunk. Not only the Maori ~ men and women were drinking, but the - little boys and girls as well. "The cons tinuan-e of this sort of thing would - mean the speedy destruction o* the ,- race." Other clergymen, including A"chdeaco Williams and a native miss'.mer, made Mmilar statements, and Mr. F-aser and Mr. Russell well may have expressed themselves shocked by the revelations. PROHIBITION THAT FAILS. It is disquioting te learn from such unbiassed witnesses as the members of the deputation appear to have been that 1 some of the worst of the orgies they ; mentKned to the Ministers had occur- ' red in prohibition distritcs, where the Maori; by their own votes had made it ■ a penil offence to supply liquor to a 5 membc • of their race. Archdeacon Wil- ■ liams thought the chief caus'_- of the 1 trouble was the defective law which, while providing penalties for the pcr- ' son vl'o supplied the liquor, provided ' none ,'or the .Maori who had it in his ■ possession. The Maori Councils also had oeen very lax in the discharge of ■ their duties. Many of them evist only on paper and exercise no sort of control over tile communities they are supposed ' to rep-isent, with the result that they have been rather a hindrance than a ■ help ti wards good government Mr. ! Rnsseli. speaking particularly i;. his capaciiy of Minister of Health, assured the members of the deputation fhat their lepresentations would receive his ; prompt and earnest attention. He had 1 not been altogether ignorant of what ' was going on, and already he had sought ! the assistance of the Minister of .lustice and '.he Attorney -General in bringing > abou'j a better state of afl'airs. Like Arch('<-iicon Williams, he did not regard » prohibition as a panacea for all the evils Mat beset mankind, but where it had bun adopted it ought to be en'crced b,' every means within the command 1 of tK' law. A member of the depnta- ; tion, writing from Gisborne, says that the .oral people interesting themseves in tliis matter have been much encouraged by Mr. Russell's attitude towards their rppeal. ; WOMEN'S WAR WORK Thev- are many women in Wellington, as tntre doubtless are all over the Dominion, anxious to find some more effective way of helping in the war" than 'by knitting socks or selling button-holes at street corners, and nith the advent of compulsion they are hoping t--i ; r sphere of usefulness may be considerably enlarged. So far the women oi New Zealand have been admitted to scarcely any of the more strenuous occupations their sisters at Home have entered in their thousands since the demand for men for tlie lighting line began. A few hundred of them arc filling gaps in public and private offices, and a few score have taken other places, but the great volume of woman- i labor capable of releasing men for the ' front is still in reserve. Oi course, it i is in the manufacture of munitions and i other military supplies that the bulk of the new women workers are employ- •■ ed in the Mother Country, but women 1 are driving motor-vans, delivering bread < and milk and groceries, acting as postmen, tramway conductors, electricians and chauffeurs and doing a vast amount of gardening and farming work There . is not one of these occupation? for which the New Zealand woman is not ! at least as well fitted as her English sister' is, and there is not one of them j she would not gladly undertake if she | had the opportunity to do so under pro- t per eonditons. A local paper, perhaps as a corollary to its demand for more ■ men, is urging that women should be i organised forthwith in preparation for services that may be required from them ' later on, and really it is quite surpris- j ing the number of avoca.tipns it is able , to enumerate as suitable to their pliy- ' sical powers and the limitation of their ■ sex. The next move should come from the women themselves, .vho have every- . thing to gain by indicating in a practical way their readiness to take up the men's home burdens. ' THE SHOE PINCHES. ' Nemesis is on the heels of Mr. G. V. Pearce/ During the whole of his political career the member for Patea has been calling out against interference : with private enterprise. He has detect- '. Ed the hand of the wicked Socialist in ; advances to settlers, in loans to workers, in State fire insurance, in State i coal-mines, and in everything else that '. has hampered the operations and lesVned the profits of the unhappy capitalist and monopolist. Through all the years '. he has~eld steadfastly to the narrow- ! est doctrines of the individualist, pro- ' claiming aloud the sanctity of freehold, free trade and freedoia of contract. But : now private enterprise, with base ingratitude, has turned on its champion. The shipping companies have siiscd the ' freight on wool, and Mr. Pearce has telegraphed to the Hon. James Allen 1 urging him to buy or charter ships to ; "break down the monopoly" and defeat the "disgraceful grab." No wonder the ] Labor folk are making .merry over this sudden conversion to Socialism! They j are writing to the papers reminding Mr. Pearce that the chickens he n.nd his friends have so carefully tended are now coming home to roost, and that the 1 whips they prepared foi the workers i are being applied to their own backs. < The similies are homely enough, but c they serve their purpose passing well. For the moment the member for Patea, who never has been guilty of a joke on ' his own account, is the butt r.f many a jest.