FUSION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18424, 3 July 1925, Page 8

FUSION.

THE PRESENT POSITION. (sricur. to "the pkkss.") "WELLINGTON. July 2. Tlie- fusion question is still in the air, and there are no of tho two parties coming to an immediato agreement. As I have already indicated, tho Liberals aro insistent for immediato fusion, and this is regarded by the Reform Party as impracticable; indeed, in so far as Wellington is concerned, many of the business men who thought fusion should bo immediato, have now como to the conclusion that it would not lx> advisable.

In regard to Mr Atmore's amendment._ it must be taken by tho Prime Minister as a question of no-confidence. It is most unliively that ho will consent to have anything tackeu on to tho Governor-General's speech by a private member by nay of amendment. In this oa«> it may "bo expected that the Labour members will have to follow Mr Atmoro into tho lobby against tho Government, and the Government Party will be found solid in support of the leader they have chosen.

"The Way the Wind is Blowing." Mr do la Perrelle, the member for Awarua., does not aspire to office. In concluding a speech in tho Houso this afternoon, he said: "I am not one of those who are office-seekers," and went on to add a few truisms about working for the benefit of tho country. Though Mr do la Perrelle has been a Party man up to tho present, ' ho now declared that Party politics were a curse —that wo should bo national «lm our ideas, and not petty-fogging. People, ho said, were getting heartily sick of the whole business. Thero should bo a- general desire throughout New Zealand to work for tho sako of tho whole country instead of for tho sako of private feeling or private interest. He believed in the old saying, "Measures, not men." Why should they not make this bourne country what Mr Seddon called it—"God's own country."

Apparently there aro in unsuspected quarters Liberals who aro no longer Party men. Possibly they realise now the way the wind is blowing in the constituencies.

"Nothing to Communicate." Beyond the fact that tho fusion delegates had a short conference this afternoon, Mr Young, M.P., said there was nothing to communicate to the Press. The Liberals decided to do nothing until they could get in touch with Mr Wilford, their leader, who is confined to his house through illness.