WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 March 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

The Liberal Party. » A Question of Leadership. (Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, May 7 The general assumption that the Hon W. D. S. MacDonald had succeeded to the acting leadership of the Liberal Par.ty has impelled the Hon G.-W. Russell, who stood next to the late Dr McNab in order of precedence, to inform the newspapers that no official appointment had been made to the position. Doubtless the popular impression that the Minister of Agriculture bod been promoted was due to the fact that he was commissioned to visit the Hawke’s Bay constituency when the vacancy in its representation in Parliament occurred and took a foremost part in commending the selected Liberal candidate to the elector?. It seems now that the Party is leaderJe3?, except for the control Sir Joseph Ward can exercise fiom Lon don, and that when Sir James Allen, the acting leader on the other side, wishes to ascertain the Liberal view, of any particular question he must invite tho whole of Sir Joseph’s colleagues to meet him. The arrangement does not strike the outsider as the mo3t convenient that could be devised, but perhaps it is the only one that is possible in the circumstances. FINANCE. As it happens the Hon A M. Myers

is the Minister holding the more important of Sir Joseph Ward’s portfolios and he very naturally might '* aspire to the leadership ; bathe dis- * raispes ony suggestion of tho kind in the most peremptory fashion. “ This is not the time to be talking about preference aud precedence,’’ hs eaid this afternoon when tho subject was mentioned to him. “ Our present business is to win the war and to win it as quickly as we can and we are all doing our best towards that end.” The Aoting Minister of Finance certainly is doing hia part uncommonly well, as the statement oE the public accounts he issued yesterday bears witness. The revenue and expendi- ( tare, of course, are largely matters of taxation in cue case and of parliamentary authorisation in the other, but Mr Myers has presented the accounts with such commendable promptness and with such admirable clearness that no one can doubt the ability and zeal 1 with which h 8 i? discharging his t trust. ■ ' HISTORICAL RESEARCHES Great as were services to Nsw Zea- * land as a politician, probably Dr Mc- . Nab will bo best romemb?ied by po»1 terity as an historian. Right up to l the last days r,f his fatal i)lo6*s b-9 ' was busying bimsMf with ihe mars of ' material be had collected for the completion of what he has pleased to call his life’s recreation and what a less devoted ard conscientious student and collector might have regarded as a „ very arduous life’s toil. He baa left behind him cotes and ! manuscripts, the fruits of years of labor and ungrudging expenditure, which could not be replaced now even if another man with the necessary qualifications and equipment wore 1 forthcoming to lcok for them,! ' Presumably this priceless material is now in the hands of the Public Trustee and in due course will pass on to the doctor’s surviving relatives. J But there is a wide-spread feeling here that it should be acquired by the State and entrusted to some capable person for the completion of the great work tha deceased politician aud aus thor had in hand. - The’matter is being brought under the notice of Ministers and it is thought Parliament, evsn in wartime, would readily make the aece3HAr? nroviaion for carrviner the idea

DCJr [Jiuviaiuu iu*. vuw into effect. FAMINE ! In his lecture in the Town Hall last night Dr A. K. Newman, who has iuat returned from a visit to Europe, where he had opportunities to eee the war and its ravages at closer quarters than are vouchsafed to most travellers, struck a somewhat pessimistic note. There was no assurance, he said, that the war would end this year or next year. If it did not, famine would be staring half the world in the face and the demand for food would be heard in every ecmntiy. With this possibility before them Dr Newman urged the people of New Zealaud to “ set aside their flowers for a year or two and to grow vegetables in their gardens.” Probably the prospect is not quite so gloomy as the doctor suggests, but for months past practical farmers all over the country have been predicting that the scarcity of labour will lead to a great reduction in the prod action of food-stuffs. One or two of them have spoken of actual famine. The position is not so serious as that, a prominent business man stated to-day, but there wonld be no barm in owners of gardens substituting potatoes and parsnips for rc-sse and geraniums this year.