THE POLITICAL CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1399, 27 March 1912, Page 5

THE POLITICAL CRISIS.

4 SIR JOSEPH WARD'S RESIGNATION. EXPECTED TO-DAY. THE ATTITUDE OP LABOUR. i Sir Joseph Ward had a lengthy interview with the Governor yesterday, and it was confidently anticipated, until the afternoon, that his resignation would bo handed in at 6ome time during the day. However, it ended without any announcement being made to that effect. There is reason to believe that the looked-for announcement will bo made to-day. The retiring Prime Minister has invited the various heads of Departments in file Public Service to meet him this morning, in order that he may bid them an official farewell. A Labour Mistake. It has already been noted that a number of local Labour leaders consider that Messrs. Voitch, Robertson, and Payne practically went over to the "Liberal" party when they attended its recent caucus and voted in the election of a leader. Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh, the Labour member who did not attend the caucus, makes no secret of the attitude he takes-up in the matter. He stated yesterday that ho considered that his colleagues had made a mistake, but that he did not anticipate any breach in his working relations with them on that account. "When a Labour member begine to consort too much with 'Liberals,'" remarked Mr. Hindmarsh, "it tends to interfere with his freedom of criticism. "I want to preserve my attitude of criticism of both parties, looking to the time when the Labour party will be in office. If a man assists to elect tho leader of another party Man his own it undoubtedly interferes with his freedom to criticise that party." To another question, Mr. Hindmarsh replied that he would consider it a profound mistake if any Labour member accepted a portfolio in the new Cabinet. More than that, he considered it a mistake that would have to be actively retented by the Labour party. ■

"A Note of Warning." 'Addressing the members of the Chamber of Commerco at the annual meeting of that body yesterday, the retiring president; (Mr. It. C. Tewsley) dealt briefly with some features of the present political situation. "When I last' addressed you," he remarked, "I indicated that in my opinion there were clear evidences of a change in the dominant factors in political life in this Dominion, and that an increasing power to be reckoned with would be organised labour. If we are to continue in the van of progress, we must keep ourselves abreast of the changing conditions of life and adapt our surroundings to those necessary modifications of the line between capital and labour that the experience of the Old Land to-day is so amply demonstrating. In this new country the possibilities of rapid equitable adjustment are much greater, and labour, owing to the buoyant conditions of trade, has been enabled to secure many advantages that capital could ill concede. Might I venture a note of warning that this continuous pressure will inevitably Tesnlt in less productiveness, and that the undoubted hostility to capital that is evidencing itself in some directions, stimulated by individuals who are not real friends to labour, will do much to discourage industry and enterprise, and result in a gradual but sure stoppage of the fostering of manufacturing and a return to the importation of many requirements from outside sources." ' '