WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1919, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

THE POLITICAL SITUATION. lION. W. D. S.~MACDONALD’S VIEWS. (Our Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, Feb. Naturally the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, the acting-leader of the Liberal Party, in the absence of Sir Joseph Ward, was a little diffident this afternoon in responding to an invitation to speak a piece for publication concerning the political position. In the morning papers there was a paragraph stating that the Hon. T. M, Wilford had: declared himself emphatically in favour of ending the Party truce and the National Cabinet on the signing of peace. It wa's sought to ascertain what the Minister of Agriculture, standing in the shoes of his Party chief thought about the matter. But he was not very communicative. “You will not expect me to speak quite so definitely on this subject as my colleague has done,” he said, as an assertion and as an interrogative. “The public would bo apt to assume that any views I expressed were the views of my absent chief, nud that obviously would be unfair to him. Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, with the concurrence of Parliament, made the. Party truce and the National Cabinet and they alone can unmake them, if they are to he unmade.”’ Further than tin’s the Minister would not go along these lines.

THE EXISTING COMPACT. But Mr MacDonald was quite ready to talk about the existing compact ancli the obligations it imposed upon Ministers and private members of the House, “ It was not expected when the compact was made,” he went on to say, “that the war would continue for four and a half years and keep the country in political inactivity all that time. Personally, 1 should have hesitated to place such a strain upon the. patience of the electors without, looking around for some alternative had I anticipated anything of the Lind. A year, or a year and a half at most, seemed as long as "we should require to leave our domestic affairs in abeyance, and at the time this did not seem too big a price to pay for a united effort towards winning the war.” Though lie does not admit as much, it is pretty evident that Mr MacDonald has found the compact a pretty big tax upon his own patience. He is not in public life for the fun begets out of it, and the burden of wail? ing weighs heavily upon his practical soul.

L4BOUR. Discussing the recent political activities of La hour, the Minister breathed a spirit of sweet tolerance. He always bad encouraged the direct representation of the workers in Parliament up to hte full strength of their voting power, he said, and lie would not be greatly perturbed if they got a little more than their precise share. But they would not exercise the influence they should in improving their own lot and shaping the destinies of the country till they realised that their strength lay in the ballot box and not in the promotion of social bitterness and industrial strife. Tie scouted the idea of a majority of the workers being disloyal to the Empire, and quoted their services during the war as a refutation of the suggestion. “Yes,” he added smilingly in reply to an interjection, “ they are giving the National Cabinet a pretty rough time, hut they have file field all to themselves j list now and the National Cabinet is a stimulating subject.”

THIS FUTURE. Mr MacDonald protested it was impossible to discuss the future without presuming this or that was going to happen to one or the other .of the political parties, but pressed on the point he mentioned one or two tilings New Zealand would hare to do for its own salvation, whatever Party wore in office. In order that it might hear the increased burden of taxation and still enjoy some of the relaxations of life it would have to enormously increase its production by inducing every suitable man and woman to go on to the land, and it would have to so adjust the relations between employers and the employed in every industrial pursuit that willing hands would be always available for the work to be done. It sounds a little utopian put into a single sentence. hut Mr MacDonald believes the country is prepared for heroic: measures. “ We have done during the. war what seemed impossible before,” he said in conclusion. “Surely wo ought to he able to do greater things in time of peace.”