WELLINGTON NOTES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18163, 27 April 1921, Page 6

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Specilai to -Chronicle.") WELLINGTON, April 25 ; 7ROGRESS OF THE PROGRESSIVES. So far as public announcement toes the new Progressive and Mod»rate Labour Party as yet includes jnly one member of Parliament, and he is the leader. Several of the independent members have been a -eJ privately for a statement ot taeir position, but they have refused to commit themsel es. It appears as if they are waiting to see how the new organisation is received. In some quarters it is considei _d ’>at Mr Statham aas acted too hastily in accepting the leadership before he was assured of a following. Prominent Reform politicians disj lav no concern regarding the new party, gßd are apt to .ecall other ventures i In party formation which have been doomed to very short life. The .nly members of the Reform Party who are at all likely to ; t the new organisation are some whose allegiance to the Party has been in doubt for a considerable time past, and even gome of these can be written off at [ once. Recent defections from the • Liberal Partv appear tn have brought that party down to bedrock, and the | only Liberal recruits possible for the new Progressives are tho’e who at present own allev’ence to no party leader. It is commonly stated, however, that the next party that some of these will join is tbe Reform, if they do not rather choose tn remain indeneodont for the remainder '< their political lives. TAXING ON NEW VALUES. There have been complaints recently of the increased valuations, and the hardship that payment of rates and taxes on the new basis is likely to place upon producers who have been hard hit by the fall in produce prices. A deputation last week placed the position beioie the Act-ing-Prime Minister iSir Francis Pell) and that the new valuation should be held over—that rating and taxing should be on the old rolls. The question which seems to have been uppermost in the minds of me—ters of the deputation was the far that the new rolls would be made an. excuse for the collection of more rates; that the i ominal rates would remain the same as forr rly so that the total sum collected would be r'uch greater than last year. Sir ; Francis Bell replied that he had no I power to hold over the valuations. ' which automatically became the new roll. Such a postponement would not le just to districts which were re- j rained last year. The only remedy ; was for those who had the right to abject no- to do so, and for Pariament to consider, when it met, [ whether there ought to be a reduction this year in the land tax and in the rates, to an amount that would be equal to the taxation on the values of, say, four years ago. Such an arrangement might be pos- , sible but he anticipated that it it were proposed every local authority in New Zealand would be at the '[ throat of the Government. Enquir- ■ ies outside show that the general feeling is that there can be no re- , duction of the valuations since that would lead to iniquity in the col-7 lection of land tax. Land tax, hovvZ -ver, is not the main concern of tAip smaller farmers. A much more sferious matter is the rating. The Glvsrnment may devise some means !*»f dealing with this, but it will probably not be nearly so effective as acti»n by the local body concerned whiejj has the power to adjust its rates/so that the income derived from tfte new valuations shall not exeedf* that collected on the old. The difficulty is, of course, that every loofal body has more ways of spending/money than it has money to spend, 'and it will rarely refuse a chance/ of increasing its revenue. I •A BIG ENTERPRISE. Labour is agitat/ng for the extension of the municipal milk enterprise to embracd distribution and production on the [farms. The Council may, later on.) undertake the retail distributiom/or adopt some new method of delivery, but it is not likeAlready the enterprise is the second largest of the Council’s undertakings, so far as tunrover is concerned, coming next to the tramways. Last year the turnover was £171,500. Of course the fact that the. sales are all wholesale means that this return does not involve so extensive a business as if the sum total was made up of returns for sales of quarts and pints. Last year the Council sold butter to the value of £43,000. and this year it may d velop this branch of the business further. At present all butter sales are made from the central milk depot. The butter is made at the Council's own factory at Rahui tOtakil from milk which is not required for the city in the summer. The purchase of the factory is believed to have proved econoi ically sound as it prevents waste of any milk, and enables the Council to retain suppliers by taking ail the milk thev have to offer without loss to itself.’ There have been some compaints, but not many, of the price charged for milk, but what is considered a complete answer to these is the fact that the Board of Trade recently fixed the price in Auckland at Bd. per quart in summer, and fid in winter, whereas it is 8d in Wellington all the year round. The retailers in Wellington, by the Act under which the Council operates, are assured 7d a gallon, but this is only to last for a term as it is considered higher than the delivery itself warrants, and is in the nature of compensation to the vendors should the Council later be disposed to undertake the delivery itself. LABOUR AND EDUCATION. Labour did not attempt to capture the school committees in Wellington this year, probably because of the set-back given to this form of Labour activity last year. In sev eral districts, however, there were Labour candidates, but there was only one Labour committee > eturj ed and that was in a district in whi h Labour is well entrenched and where Labour men who had pre.’icnsly held office had justified the-n-elves In other districts no more than a single candidate at most was elected.

UNEMPLOYMENT REPORT I. [ Thera Lave been certain alarmist ! reports as la the amount of unem- | pioyment cxkting in Wellington; but these appear to make the position worse loan it realty is. The . oiumns of Hie daily papers still show many situations vacant, the greater number tapart from domestic labour; being situations for skilled workers. Registrations at the Labour Department bureau, which represent the unemployment mainly [ of unskilled labour, show that there i arc- between forty and fifty persons [ seeding work and are unable to find [ it. This is not'an alarming figure, ■ even for this time of the year. The Minister for Labour, when answering the R. S. A. and Progress League deputation last week, deprecated alarmist reports, as tending to cause a panic among men who had money to spend. He also suggested that other people should help to find work, and come to the Government last instead of first. A member of the deputation. Mr Whatman, ot the Wairarana. considered that farmers were going about things in the wrong way in sacking their men. The- should discuss the position with them and ask them to accept what the farmers could afford to pay until the position became brighter. FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Labour members have so often accused tbe Government of gagging its o, pouents by legal process, and of eniorcing a harsh censorship, that many people have come to believe that these things are actually being done. Sir Francis Bell has done a public service iu putting the ether side cf the case in a letter ■which he Las written to Mr H. E. Holland, M.P., in reply to a request ■from the latt.r for the release of a [man who had been sentenced to im- I prisonment for selling copies of a sc .it’ ms pamphlets. Sir Francis Bell set out that in a country where there was universal suffrage the majority ,5 t rule. “Pray do not meet this the usual futile argument,” he ! w:. “that as long as more than [ two p rties exist, power may be held ; by a party which has not a full maj- [ srity over the other two combined. The argument is good platform stuff ■but appeals no more to your reason than to mine. If your cause and opinions prevail with a majority of the people of New Zealand, then, : you know as well as I do, that your party cun attain power at any general election. And again, if persons i holding views far more extreme than [your own can pursuade the majority of the people of New Zealand that [what they advocate is right, those [extremists will attain and hold power. Ther afore, plainly it is not o.uy unnecessatv, |>ut criminal ar.d [wicked, to auvocate the attainjy.ent iof power or alt-.atfon of the constitution, by bloodshed amp violence, xou must pardon me .or spying that : you are not just either to the Govern- [ ment or to yourself ip presenting a [ contention that liberty ot speech and freedom of advocacy o t any form of constitutional, c/r even of revolution- ; ary change, hjxs been in any manner i curtailed iiuxhis Dominion since the ' war ended,'' 't he restrictions imposed (during the war were rendered neces- [ sary W the circumstances of the war I itself; You know that every such j restriction has been cancelled by leg- [ islation introduced by the GovernUment, with the single exception exfl pressed in the Police Offences Amend [ment Act of 1919, and in the War Regulations Continuance Act of 1920 [ advocacy of violence or lawlessness I is prohibited. So long as men refrain ■ n print or language from inciting .to violence or lawlessness, they are 1 absolutely free to hold and express : any opinions, and to advocate any (change, however revolutionary, in [ the constitution or form of Governi ment. The continued War Regula- [ tions prohibit the expression of se- [ ditious intention, which may posj sibly have misled you and others : into the belief that advocacy of Comi munism or socialism or of a Republic is prohibited. You will find, however, that by Section 118 of the Crimes Act it is provided that ‘no one shall be deemed to have a seditious intention only because he intends in god faith to incite His ”ajI esty’s subjects to attempt to procure (by lawful means the alteration ~f any [matter affecting the constitution, [ laws or Government of the United j Kingdom or of New Zealand; i.■ to 1 point out in order to their removal [ matters producing or having a tendency to produce, feelings of hatred 'and ill-will between different classes j of His Majesty’s subjects.’ In other I words it is either unlawful or seditiloqs to advocate the wildest form of [socialism or Communism. What is [unlawful and seditious is to advocate I murder and violence as legitimate [ methods for attainment of political i ends. If your contentions were car- [ Tied to their logical conclusions it . would be legitimate for any section ' of the community to drill and arm, ■ with the avowed object of slaughterI ine the majority who could not be [ otherwise coerced. You must, there- : fore, take my answer to be that the [ Government of New Zealand does not [now interfere, and does not propose ;to interfere, with the liberty of I speech or action: btit that it doss intend to prevent, and will use ail its i powers to prevent, violence and ’awi lessness; and that its officers will. [ in accordance with the duty imposed j on them by law, endeavour to bring ■to justice persons who refuse to comply with that condition, and that the Government will not establish a [practice of exorcising the prerogative of pardon in favour of such persons when convicted.