WELLINGTON TOPICS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15752, 26 February 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PUBLIC WORKS. SUPPLY OP LABOUR, (From oTir Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, February The Minister, of Public Works has been excusing himself for not pushing hydro-electric schemes and other development works authorised by Parliament with tiie plea that he is unable to obtain the necessary labour for thsee undertakings. He has plenty of money, he has told several impatient deputations from the districts specially affected by the delay, but he cannot obtain the men. Mr J. A. Nash, the Mayor of Palmerston North, however, is not accepting this explanation in the case of the Mangahao hydro-electric scheme. He has made a definite offer to find the men required to undertake the initial work in connection with this scheme, and has suggested that the New Zealand Tunnelling Corps, which did such splendid work during the war, should be induced to remain in the service of the State for undertakings of this description. A SEASONABLE SUGGESTION, Mr Nash., who, in addition to being Mayor of Palmerston North, is member for the thriving district in which the borough stands, is ready to make his word good at once, and iia donbt Sir William Fraser will be glad enough to harp bis assistance in obtaining the men he requires. Labour has been his difficulty since the very beginning of the war, and though he accentuated it to some extent by fixing too low a maximum wage, he has since repented of that mistake and is now offering a rate that should attract suitable labour. The suggestion that the members of the Tunnelling Corps should be employed upon hydro-electric works follows upon the admission by the Chief Electrical Engineer that the scarcity of skilled tunnellers was the chief obstacle to the speedy prosecution of his proposals. A NON-POLITICAL BOARD. The formation of “Progress League” and .“Development Leagues” in various parts of the South Island, largely, it would seem,, for the purpose of bringing pressure upon the Government in the expenditure of public money, has revived the proposal of the establishment of a non-political board to determine the allocation of public works expenditure It is maintained that such a board, while listening to any representations that might be made to it from any particular district, would not be subject to the “squeezing” that is always applied to Ministers by members of Parliament and their constituents when the Public Works Estimates are being prepared, dive Board, it is also contended, would be able to put a stop to the shockingly wasteful practice of keping a dozen scraps of railway progressing at the rate of a mile or two a year, and eating their hands off in the way of interest before they are completed. PARTY POLITICS. The announcement, telegraphed from Auckland, that the Prime Minister >s likely to be opposed by the oro-anisino-secretary of the Franklin branch of the Farmers Union at the next general election, has not occasioned much perturbation in-official Reform circles here. As a matter of fact the Reformers, taking a somewhat less quixotic view of the party truce than Sir Joseph Ward and his Liberal colleagues in the National Cabinet do, are much better organised than the Liberals are, and they have no fear of Mr Massey being disturbed in his representation of Franklin, if h e should choose to seek re-election for that constituency. The “if” they explain, is used in deference to the stories that are flying about, not on account of any hint they have received from the Prime Minister himself.