WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1929, Page 9

WELLINGTON TOPICS

HIS CONSTITUENTS FIRST MEMBER FOR MOTUEKA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, July 11. Mr. G. C. Black, the very young member for Motueka, took his seat in the House of Representatives for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, and at once plied the Prime Minister with pertinent questions concerning the needs of the sufferers from the earthquakes on the West Coast of the South Island. He was assured by the Prime Minister that steps were being taken to rehabilitate the sufferers in their homes and farms; to maintain the steamer service along the stricken districts of the coast, and to alleviate in every way possible the calamities that had overtaken a very deserving section of the community. It would be impossible to restore the lives that had been lost or to repair in a week or a month or a year the damage that had been done;, but the Government was fully alive to the responsibility that had rested upon it and was determined to discharge it to the best of its means and ability.

AN ALTERNATIVE.

Meanwhile the Government is taking the necessary steps to ascertain in some detail the extent of the damage done within the earthquake area. Already there are estimates running well into a million and presumably not one half of the total has yet been ascertained. It is not expected, of course, that a beneficent Government and a generous public will cover the whole of the losses. A large share must remain with the sufferers themselves. It is hoped, however, that such recuperative arrangements will be made that a large proportion even of the heavy sufferers will be able to securely re-establish themselves in their old homes. Even the politicians who, rightly or wrongly, are raising their voices against the completion of the South Island Trunk Railway are suggesting to the Government that the money intended for that undertaking this year should be applied to the rehabilitation of the devastated West Coast. Whether or not the Prime Minister is entertaining the suggestion remains to be seen. IN CONCILIATORY MOOD. When the House resumed work on Tuesday after the week-end recess both Reform and Labour appeared to be in a conciliatory mood. Mr. T. W. McDonald, the member for Wairarapa, and Mr. F. Lye, the member for Waikato, speaking from the other side of the chamber, certainly had something to say about “Spoils to the Victors” in reply to suggestions made by Mr. H. S. Kyle, the member for Riccarton, at the previous sitting, but they obtained only a casual hearing. The more tactful member for Wallace, Mr. A. Hamilton, took the opportunity to congratulate the Prime Minister upon his return to the Treasury Benches and to assure him of the goodwill and assistance of the Opposition, “so long as he did the right thing,” a qualification which produced laughter from both sides of the House. Mr. H. E. Holland, the leader of tho Labour Pn.rtv.

also promised support to the Government _ “during good behaviour” and so contributed further harmony to the proceedings. GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE. Mr. Holland, however, could not refrain from casting doubts upon the sincerity of the Government in its attitude towards State interference. “He had found himself wondering,” a report of his allusion to this subject runs, “whether, when the Government’s legislation in that respect was brought down, it would affect the State Advances Department, the Public Trust Office, the Post Office Savings Bank and a number of other institutions which clashed with the legal fraternity, the financial institutions and other private profiteering concerns.” Sir Joseph ■ Ward has made his views and intentions in this respect quite plain in his interviews and speeches, and there is no need for Mr. Holland to be speculating as to whether he meant this or that. Sir Joseph has stated quite plainly that ha has no intention of interfering in any way with the legitimate operations of the institutions mentioned by Mr. Holland. But just as plainly he has deprecated any of these institutions entering unfairly into competition with legitimate private enterprise.