WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1919, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

IYERO-ELECTRIC POWER ' ' ' f DEVELOPMENT. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 14. Complaints are reaching the Minister of Public Works from all parts of the North Island of the delay in getting ou with "the hydro-electric power schemes that have been authorised by Parliament. The great success which has attended 4ho development of the Lake Coleridge chejpe in the South Island has immcL scly strengthened the case for the vigorous prosecution of similar undertakings in other parts of the Dominion, and the people of the Manawatu district, with the assistance of their politicians and local bodies, are pressing with commendable vigor the claims of the Mangahao scheme which would serve an enormous area of closely settled country and a number of thriving boroughs and town districts. Sir William Eraser's oft-repeated reply to the representations is that the scarcity of labor prevents him pushing the work along as they wish and that he sees little prospect of any improvement in this respect for some tim« yet. LABOR'S RETORT. There can be no doubt that the late shearing and the late harvest have militated against the efforts of the Public Works to obtain suitable porkers for the variou: jnterprises it has in hand. That much is admitted by the Minister's critics. But the Labor authorities, official and unofficial, declare that the efforts of the Department to keep down wages during the course of the war are at the bottom of the whole trouble. Until quite lately the Minister prescribed a maximum wage f»r local bodies as well as for State departments with the result that the very men he wanted were driven into more remunerative private employment. The restriction is now removed, but the men have no guarantee it will not be re-imposed, and so far there are not sufficient workers returning from the front to materially ease the position. THE LICENSING POLL. Though the licensing poll, which may effect a veritable revolution in the social habits of the people of the Dominion, is now only some two months away, the questions of "continuance" and "prohibition," except for the placards one sees in public plaees, appear to be engaging less attention than they were this time last year. The leaders of the campaign on both sides, however, pro/ess to be satisfied with the progress they are making. The prohibitionists admit that they have lost some casual support by the conclusion of the war, hut they do not expect the defections to be nearly so numerous as their opponents hope. The moderate.-* are admirably organised everywhere and are not lacking in voluntary helpers, but their fear is that many of their sympathisers, particularly in the country districts, will not trouble to record their votes in the absence of a general election. On t'hat point the result of the trial of strength between the contending parties probably will turn. THE POLITICAL POSITION. Stories concerning the political position continue to grow in circumstance and daring if not in verisimilitude. The latest names the provisional leader of the new party and the members of the new Coalition Ministry. An ultimatum, so it is said, is to be presented to Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, jointly and severally-, on their return from London demanding release from existing party ties and an early dissolution of Parliament. If the party leaders should offer an objection to this modest request —which seems improbable—the revolutionaries will take the problem into their own hands and solve it as may seem to them good—"quick and lively," as one of them puts it colloquially. The truth behind all this probably is that a certain number of members on both sides of politics are anxious to have their tongues freed in order that they may commence their election campaigning, according to long precedent, from the floor of the House. RELIEF OF WIDOWS AND ORPHANS. The Minister for Public Health, who promised Parliament that the relief of widows and orphans bereaved during the epidemic would be free from all taint of charitable aid, protested hotly today when a deputation charged him with breach of faith. The fact seemed to be that the Wellington Hospital Board, entrusted with the administration of relief, has treated the cases oil the ordinary charitable aid basis. A woman member of the board stated 1 that the epidemic widows are brought before the charitable aid committee, closely examined as to their finances and their earning capacity, and given coupons instead "cf cash. These coupons, which brand the bearer as the recipient of charitable aid, have to be given to tradesmen for goods. The evil has not ended there, for it appears to have been the practice of the committee to suggest to the widows that they should break up their homes, send their children into institutions and go t'> work themselves. The Minister promised to amend matters and it is to be hoped that he Will succeed promptly. In the meantime, according to the deputaiton, many people whose need of assistance is great shrink from asking for it.