THE SESSION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 285, 28 August 1919, Page 6

THE SESSION

MEETINGS OF PARTIES

APPOINTMENTS TO MINISTRY

QUESTIONS DISCUSSED

PARLIAMENT TO OPEN TO-DAY

Parliament will be opened by His Excellency the Governor-General this afternoon. The ceremony will take place in the new Legislative Council Chamber, but tho builders have not done all the work of finishing and decorating the room y it, and tho Council will have to move into the old.Chamber for tho business of the session.

The House will meet this afternoon and will adjourn after the usual formal iSuainess. Eeference will be made to the death of a former member of the Legislature, the late llr. E. W. Taylor, who died in Wellington a few days ago, and the adjournment will 'be taken as a mark of respect to his memory.

"A VERY GOOD MEETING." ME. MASSEY AND HIS PARTY. The Reform Party held a meeting yesterday afternoon, sitting for some three hours. The meeting was then adjourned, aud it .-will be .concluded probably before the end of the week. In view of the fact that the meeting: was uncompleted, no prepared summary of proceedings was published after the meeting rose. In a very few words jt was announced that tlis meeting had ibeen entirely satisfactory—a very good meeting, in fact. All the members of the party had been present or accounted' for. Many questions had been discussed with the utmost' freedom, but at all times the discussion had been At the conclusion of the meeting the party had carried unanimously a vote of confidence in Mr. Massey as leader. Little information is obtainable as to wlmt occurred at the meeting. There is general agreement that the discussion at the caucus was, as Mr. Massey stated, quite friendly, and likely 'to be good in result. Also, it is generally agreed that whatever may have been the feeling, of individual members on the Government, none of them was opposed to Mr. Massey as leader, and all of them promised that ,in any event they would follow him until the end of the present Parliament. This is true even of those members who are referred to as "malcontents.." The real question at issue between Mr. Massey and his liarty 6eems to be the constitution of tho Ministry. At least some of the members of the party aro not satisfied with tho present Cabinet, and thero is a demand for reconstruction which cannot be withstood, oven if there wero any desiro on tho part of the leader to withstand it, of which desire there is no evidence. It is quite safe to predict that somo Ministers will bo appointed at once. Tho number to be appointed will probably not be less than two or more than four. The wa.r is over, and as soon as possible tho Government ought to be reduced to peace establishment, ■ but this cannot be done at once without, some difficulty, because there is still a great deal of war work to be done by the Government, especially in tho Defence Department. It may, therefore; bo necessary to appoint more than two Ministers. It is possiblo that tfi'c party is'to be taken into the confidence of the Prime Minister in the matter of tho selection of Ministers to fill the vacancies. Possibly Mr. Massey may bo in a position to niako or to receive suggestions when the caucus meeting is resumed. This filling of the vacancies does not touch the question of reconstruction of the Ministry," nnd there seems *to bo no doubt' that reconstruction is coming, it cannot be stated with certainty that tho reconstruction will not come at once, but thero are certain objections to this course, and these objections will no doubt bo raised by the Loader of the_ Government. The session will be a trying one, and Mr. Massey will quite naturally wish .to have round him tried and experienced counsellors. For this reason Mr. Massey way wish to postpone the changes in the Ministry -which somo of his friends aro reported to bo asking him to make. When the timo comes for the malting of the changes, which will in all probability be at the end of tho session, all the Ministers will hand in their resignations, and of theso at least two vill be accepted. The Leader of tho Government has many "eligibles" from whom to make his choice of new Ministers. One of the questions of difficulty will be as to whether any of the "nrogressives" arc to bo • included in the Cabinet.

THE OPPOSITION CAUCUS. A GUABDED STATEMENT. members of the Liberal Party were in caucus for tho greater part of yesterday afternoon. _ The meeting was not fully representative of the party as it existed prior to the formation of the National Government. Among the more notable of the absentees were the Hons. G. W. "Russell and J. A. Ilanan. After the gathering -had concluded Sir Joseph Ward made the following statement:— . Thero was a good attendance of members of the party at the. meeting. There were 2G actually present and two others accounted for. A scries of resolutions was carried. The first stated that tho action of Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues in retiring from tho National Cabinet is in full accord with tho agreement entered into on the formation of the National Government, and is fully •endorsed by tho meeting. A second stated that tho meeting is in hearty iic-i cord with tho policy _ embodied in the manifesto issued by Sir Joseph Ward. \ resolution of continued confidence in Sir Joseph Ward as tho leader of tho party was carried without dissent. The work done by ttie Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald and his Liberal colleagues in the National Government during the absenco of Sir Joseph Ward in Europe was tho subject of a further appreciative motion, the meeting -expressing a desire to place on record its appreciation of the servico they rendered to the country during this period. The announcement made by Mr. T. K. Sidey of his intention not to seek re-elec-tion was deplored in a resolution which further expressed tho hope that he might be induced to reconsider his decision not to re-contest the Dunedin South electorate. A further resolution of a personal nature was a 'formal welcome to Sir Joseph and Lady Ward on their return from the Old Country and an expression of pleasure at seeing them onco again: in New Zealand. Messrs. G. W. Forbes (Hurunui) and J. S. Dickie (Solwyn) wero re-elected Whips. Discussing the situation further, Sir Joseph Ward said that ho considered it was a good meeting. All the members of the party reoognised i that the country was passiug through difficult times from tho point of view of reconstruction, and expressed the desiro tlhat the party should afford general assistance in tho performance of this work. No resolution was carried concerning procedure in the House. Neither was any principle of an aggressive character affirmed. No definite commitment could be made to cover what would be tho action of the party when the House met. Sir Joseph Ward said that ho considered it was the duty of the party to afford what, help it could in matters appertaining to tho Empire, and allso to the country in genoral. Nothing could bo said to indicate what was likely to happen in tho IToiiso until it was known what tho programme of the Government would be. .Annrt from that, the position was that the House was back to the situation obtaining before the Coalition—that of Government and Opposition. "The responsibility attaching to the lattar is fully concluded Sir Jcveph Ward, "but no moro than any other leader am I making any promises as ! to what may or may not bo the course taken, except to ray t'«it the good of the country must come first."

LABOUR PARTY MEETS. ■ A weting of tho Parliamentary Labour W.as.Md .yestetttyy tUjieijipAn, In

an official statement from the Whip of the party (Mr. A. Walker) it was announced that "it was unanimously agreed that tho country should be given the earliest opportunity of choosing a new. Parliament." Mr. 11. E. Holiand was elected chairman of tho party, and 'Mr. A. Walker secretary and Whip. Tho members of this party at present number six, including one in the Legislative Council, The members are: The Hon. J. T. Paul, Messrs. H. Holland, E. Semple, A. Walker, P. Eraser, and J. M'Combs. These wero all present at the meeting. Messrs. Payne, Veitch, and S. Smith, who are ufuaf.ly styled as Labour men, wero not at this or any other caucus meeting,

A NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION? While Sir Joseph Ward specifically reserves in his statement the right to move a no-confidence motion at any timo he may think fit, most people will gather from his words that this is not his present intention—that he will at least allow the important. business of the session to be done before making his venture. It is rumoured, however, that the Labour people are going to move a vote of no-confidence with the object of "putting members on side." The effect may not be exactly what is expected. If the motion wero ignored, and the debate were confined to the speeches of the Labour members, the chances are that tho Liberals will not vote in the division at all.

THE SPEECH. The Speech to be delivered by His Excellency tho Governor-General at the opening of Pafliament this session will ha an interesting one. It will make reference as a matter of courso to the end of the war, to the Peace Treat)', and. the ratification of it by the New Zealand Legislature, and to problems of reconstruction facing this country. Some indications may be given of the legislation which it is the intention of the Government to introduce during the session. The debate on the Address-in-Eeply is usually opened on the. first sitting day ot' the week following the opening day. This course will probably be followed again, and if so the debate will open on Tuesday evening. Tho mover is to lie Mr. J. A. Nac-li, who takfis his seat in the House for the first time this session.