WELLINGTON TOPICS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15972, 14 November 1919, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

A RAILWAY EXPERIMENT. A TRIAL RUN. (From Our Speeii! Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, November 13. The Prime Minister has arranged to make his big 1 policy speech at Waiuku in his own electorate to-uight. He intends to speak later in Wellington and t»he other chief centres. Mr Massey has been a very busy man during, recent weeks. He has carried more than his share of the work of the Ministry, in Parliament and out of it, and at the same time he appears to have been performing most of the work of organising his party «for tho general election. It was natural, there-' fore, that when he was able to leave Wellington on his'way to the Franklin electorate, after .being detained longer than | he expected, he should be in a hurry. Bold Ministers in other days have taken special trains on these occasions. But Mr Massey has often expressed his disapproval of such wasteful expenditure of puoiic money. . Some Wellington, people, nevertheless, were inclined to smile when they read in the newspapers on Saturday under the heading "Trial Train Run": To-night • an express will leave Wellington for Auckland" for the purpose of ascertaining the best time iu which the run between the two cities can be done. Palmerston North, Marton, Ohakune, Taumarunui and Frankton will be the stops. The Ministcff of Railways (Mr Massey), the General Manager (Mr R. VV. Mc'Villy) and several railway officers Wlll he on board. It is to be hoped that the "Trial Run" was entirely successful. WHALE FISHING. Mr Ernest Joyce, who is to be second in command of the new Antarctic expedition, has had something to eay about the prospects of whale fishing in the southern waters. The late Captain Scott, Sir Ernest- Shackletcii, and other explorers have reported the existence of whales in very larga numbers in the Ross Sea, the Weddell Sea, and other semi-enclosed waters within the vast ice-fields of tho Antarctic. Norwegian . whalers who have been working among the islands southward of Cape Horn have shown that the fisheries are capable of profitable development. They brought out oil to the value of over in one year of the war, and there is no reason why the Norwegians should be left without competition, particularly as most of the known portions of the Antarctic coast are under the British flag-. But it will be a .great pity if the stimulus given to British enterprise by the new- expedition results merely in a few years of ruthless slaughter, with tho consequent extermination of the whales in the accessible waters. Whale-fishing, ! always has been conducted in this way in the past. Control has been lacking, and tho wha'es have been harried in season and out until they disappeared from their accustomed haunts. If whale fisheries are to be developed in the Ross Sea, which is properly within New Zealand's sphere, the Dominion Government should arrange to exercise supervision and collect license fees. The Imperial authorities would not be likely to withhold their consent if representations were made to them in the right way.