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Hokitika Guardian, 30 September 1919, Page 2

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth who has but lately returned from the Peace Conference has been tlie hero' of the hour in Australia . The receptions accorded him have been great in every sense of the word.' In Britain Mr Hughes manage to keep very much in the forefront, «ven though at times he stood alone. He seems to have served his country with special distinction and all shades of opinion are thanking him in very generous terms. A Sydney paper says:—“Mr Hughes has returned with a fine record of nchieve%ent hich Australia gratefully acknowledges.” The cheering and the, feting must soon die down, and then Mr Hughes has to make good in deed what he has promised in word. The future holds much for Australia, hut it remains to be seen how the immediate future will bo prepared for, to anticipate how soon Australia can attain her high destiny. Political conditions in Vustralia are evry complex. There is a series of problems scarcely less acute than those of war, confronting Australia. Far-sighted government and judicious leadership are needed, and by common consent, Mr Hughes is being acclaimed as the only possible deader at this juncture. He will carry a heavy burden and face an entanglement of problems through which a national pathway niust be cleared. Mr Hughes says he has returned belonging to no party, but of certainty he must have party leanings, label them how he will. He will find a difficulty in making political bricks without resorting to the sneei fications of party principles and consciously or unconsciously he will have the party bias. But to succeed he will reqire to bo very much untramelled with party ties, and in breaking from the old environment and the set motion of the party machine, he is wise Probably, to thus early proclaim his political independence. His course of action and the political fate of Australia thereunder will arrest tbe attention of the outside world.