WELLINGTON TOPICS

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14712, 29 July 1921, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE ACTING-PRIME MINISTER. REPLIES TO CRITICISE. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Sir Francis Bell, long regarded as the most imperturbable of politicians, is becoming a little sensitive to newspapci criticism. A week or two ago, in his capacity of Acting-Minister of Finance he handed to the newspapers a statement concerning the finances of the Dominion up to June 9, and one of the Auckland dailies, noticing the lapse ot time between its preparation and its publication, described it as "belated.'' Sir Francis takes exception to the term and explains—again, it will be observed, at his leisure —that the statement was prepared early in June to meet certain charges levelled against the Government by Hie Chrislehurch Labour members, anl then was withheld from publication in order to prevent it being used to the prejudice of the loan negotiations going on in London at ihe time. Had it subsequently -been brought up to date it would have been still more confounding to the Government's detractors, but it would not have been relevant to their charges' of a month before. The explanation is adequate, but it would have been more effective had it accompanied the statement. A Farmer's Protest. In his presidential address at Ihe opening of the annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union yesterday, Mr G. \V. Leadley, a stout-hearted agriculturist from Canterbury, whose fifty odd years of battling with Ihe soil has neither dulled his eloquence nor damped his ardour, spoke words that are seldom heard in Wellington. ".So far as tiie Civil Service is concerned," he said, in a plea for national effort and national economy, "the plain English of the posiiion is that we are gradually building up a. solid and permanent structure, whose weight and whose influcnce will be so powerful as In successfully resist all attempts at reduction or reform in number or in status or In cost. Let any ambitious or reckless politician even now lead a crusade against Ihe existing order of things, in so far as the general multiplication of c;i a t c employees is concerned, and his fate will be swift and utter annihilation." Mr Leadtey would begin his reform right at the top of Ihe service, reducing the number of members of Parliament by one-half and cutting off other exchcsccnces with a ruthless hand. But as he says himself, men of his mind do not get their opportunity.

Totalisator Licenses. J% he expected, the Minister of Internal Affairs is being bombarded with protests against the proposals of the Racing Commission to withhold totalisator licenses from certain established racing and trotting clubs. The Nnpicr Park Club, which hitherto has held four days' racing during the year, led ofi'. its president (Mr Vigor Brown, M.P.) telegraphing to the Minister asking by what authority he consigned the club to oblivion without Parliament having had an opportunity to consider the Commission's recommendations. The Minister has replied epiite emphatically that his legal authority to refuse licenses till Parliament has reached a decision is clear, and. that he has no intention of altering his determination. The danger now to the recommendations is that the opponents af racing on. general principles and the representatives of the disgruntled clubs will .join forces in the House to reject them altogether. The big concessions to trotting clubs at the expense of long-established racing clubs are not very popular here, an 1 this also may be a cause of dissension. Unprofitable Railways.

The serious falling oil in the railway returns during the current financial year is causing the Minister in Charge and the officers of the Department very grave anxiety. The official returns for April and May showed that the revenue per mrle of railway in the North Island during the first eight weeks of the financial year had increased by only £GO7, compared with the revenue of the corresponding period of last year, while the expenditure had increased by £1230. In the South Island the position was even worse. Here the revenue per mile of railway had increased by only £ll3, while the expenditure had increased by £034. The percentage of expenditure to revenue was 0 i.'i7 in the North Island and 101.03 in the South Island. The official returns for the later fourweekly periods are not yet available, but apparently there has been no improvement in the figures. The unsatisfactory position is attributed to the large increase in wages and the high cost of coal and so far the authorities have been able to think of no other remedy than the raising of fares and freights. The possibilities of this expedient., however, appear to 'be exhausted, and the next step probably will be the discontinuance of a number of unprofitable services.