WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE APPROACHING SESSION. MEMBERS IN TOWN. (Our Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, June 23. Quite a number of provincial members of Parliament are in town to-day settling down in their quarters for the session, getting the run of the ropes and generally giving the lobbies a busy appearance. The gossip on this occasion does not revolve around tho strength of parties, as it did at the opening of the first session of the last Parliament, but rather around the use the Prime Minister is going to make of his comfortable majority. Mr Massey never lias been in such a strong position before. He came into office in 1912 by the grace of three or four disgruntled members who previously had‘sat on the other side of the House. These recruits prov_ ed to he among the loyalest of his supporters, hut their presence in the Reform camp seemed always to imply some modification of the party’s programme. After the election of 1914 the parties in the House were so evenly balanced that a coalition or a dissolution was inevitable and tlie leaders chose what they thought the smaller of the two evils. With the eoalition party warfare was suspended and with it the debatable points of Mr Massey’s election programme. Thus it comes about- that after eight years of office Mr Massey now gets his first opportunity to show what lie can accomplish with an assured majority at his hack. WHAT WILL HE DO AVITH IT? Possibly the Fates have been-kind to the Prime Minister in denying lum the full prerogatives of his high, office till the present time. Had he returned from tin' election of 1911 with a good working majority it easily might have been his undoing. He had comniitted himself on the hustings to a whole host of “reforms,” crude in conception and im]K)ssil)le of execution, which the presense of a strong Opposition has given him time to reconsider and drop. Moreover, ho knows far more about politics to-day than lie did eight years ago, is much better equipped ns a legislator and administrator, and is broader in his vision and his aspirations. But with ali these added advantages lie still lias to show his ability to deal successfully with the tremendous task that lies before him. In reconstructing- his Ministry he has taken up two of the heaviest burdens, Finance and Railways, himself, and has entrusted land and Public Works to comparative novices, who will require his constant guidance and supervision, while Labour, of no less importance than the rest, hangs somewhere suspended, like tlie traditional coffin, between heaven and earth. Mr Seddon with all his lust for work was never more heavily burdened than Mr Massey will be. THE OTHER SIDE.

In these circumstances it is not surprising that the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, the leader of the Liberal and the Liberal-Labour Opposition, who is a good sportsmen as well as a chivalrous politician has declared his intention to avoid harrassing the Government with party bickering. It may be assumed that when Mr Massey stated the other day he was no party men he realised his victory at the polls last Decemboi was the result of organisation and discipline, not of any burning desire on the part of a majority of the electors to re-establish him in office. If the two leaders bear themseives in this spirit throughout the life of the present Pai_ Lament they will set a very fine example to their followers in tlie House and to their supporters in the country. Nor is there any reason to suppose ’t will be lost on the Labour Opposition. Mr H. Holland will find among his new colleagues in this little group one or two earnest men much more bent upon ' building up than upon pulling down and ready to co. operate witli any progressive elements in the House they may discover for themselves. There is some talk to-daj of a new party in the House—as there always is on the'evo of the first session of a new Parliament —but the prospect of it materialising is as remote as that of another coalition.