WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SECOND NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION

A DULL DEBATE

(Our Special Cor respond cut)

WELLINGTON, July 2,

Tho second uo-oonfideuco motion ol the scarcely week old sessiun was started on its way in the House of Representatives yesterday by tile leader ot tho Opposition. Of course, Mr MacDonald has no expectation of ousting the Reform Ministers from Lilts Treasury Benches, but apparently be thinks it good tactics to draw a well deliued line of distinction between tins political creeds of tho two main parties before they become more closely associated in a joint eflort lor the national welfare. Ills liiaiif attack yesterday was upon the Government’s failure to produce a more equitable system of election and its “ muddling and extra vaguu do,” as he put it, in connection with soldier settlement. Here be made his points well, but in other respects his attack fell rather flat.

THE GOVERNMENT’S ATTITUDE. No doubt the Prime Minister is just as well pleased to have this series of noconfidence motions hutched against him at the present time. Secure in his big majority, fresii from the constituencies, and showing no disposition towards “ independence,” he can watch the attacks with complacency and await the issue without trepidation. While the Liberal and Labour forces are poundmig at his ramparts lie can continue in comparative quietness his preparations for tlie serious work of the session and lay all the blame for the waste of time upon the shoulders of his critics. Whether this preliminary skirmishing will serve the purpose of the Opposition is doubtful, but it certainly will not embarass the Government. ELECTORAL REFORM. Mr Massey made it quite clear by an interjection lie threw across the House yesterday that he had 110 intention of amending the electoral law just yet. Mr MacDonald was urging with figures drawn from the results ol the general election last December, the claims of proportional representation, when the Prime Minister asserted that the committee appointed at Home to go into this question had reported no improvement could be made upon the “ first-past-the-post ” system. As a matter ol historical fact, this statement hardly represented the true position, but it sufficiently disclosed Mr Massey’s views on the matter, and it is safe to conclude no movement for reform will conic from the Government, during the life of the present Parliament.

soldiers’ settlem:ent. The Eon. D. H. Guthrie was put up to reply to -Mr MacDonald’s indictment of the Governnienf’s settlement policy and administration, and if big figures hurled across the floor of the House could have killed, the lender of the Opposition would have speedily lain prostrate. at the feet of tlie Minister of Lands. Mr Guthrie showed that no less than £19,066,308 had been expended upon soldier settlement in one way and another, and that n total area of 691,141 acres, including 56 purchased estates, comprising 200,000 acres, was now either available for settlement or in course of preparation. It was only a mass of figures, it is tme, but the mass suggested the Minister had lacked neither in zeal nor in activity.