WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1925, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

DAIRY CONTROL. A DIVIDED HOARD. (Special to “Guardi-n”.) WKI.LIXGTOX, Fob. 2. After sitting for tile best part of three day.s, observing, of course, reasonable hours for rest and refreshment, the Dairy I’rndnec Board adopted on Friday by a small majority a motion affirming the principle of “lull control” by the Board of all dairy produce intended for export. Hitherto the Board has contented itself with gathering information, arranging shipping freights ami insurance rates, and doing a certain amount of advertising of New Zealand butter and cheese. It has not even gone the length of regulating the Quantity of produce shipped to Lomloi each month, a.s the .Meat Board has done, and for this omission it is being blamed for the slump in prices following upon the over-loaded Home market. The Board's meetings are not open to the representatives of the Press and the. official reports of its proceedings furnished by the secretary never are very illuminating; but by putting two and two together it i.s fairly easy to guage the proportions in which the members of the Board wei divided on this occasion. There wi! he no breach of confidence in saving that the members of the Board’s ov> seas delegation—Messrs Grounds, Motion and Thacker, and the manager of the Now Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Air Goodl’elhnv, were the chief instigators and the ardent supporters of absolute control. They required the support of only two ether members to carry their proposal. It i.s understood that both the Government nominees upon the Board were against absolute control and it goes without saving that the representative of the shippers voted with the minority. At the next monthly meeting, to he held on February 25th.. the Hoard will consider a scheme for putting the principle into practice, and then it will I for the Government to say whether or not the majority shall have its way. “THE THREE PARTY .MENACE.”

.Mention was made by the “New Zealand Times” on Saturday of a deputation that had waited tip-on Colonel T. W. .McDonald Ho invite him to contest lno Wellington North seat at the next general election a.s the nominee of the “l moiii.st" Party which was said to he in course of formation with the purpose of bringing about a fusion between the Rolorm and Liberal Parties a.s a safeguard against the forces of Socialism and Communism. Colonel McDonald, who is mure widely known in Otago than - c is in Wellington, vas a candidate of a somewhaL loosely defined colour foilin' Wellington East seat at. the last general.election, and by diverting a considerable number of votes from flic Reform i andidate IT in flic Labour nominee wlm now represents the constituency in Parliament. The gallant ( ,c.|ciK-l in hie own political record would n»t bo. tason very seriously as

a i undulate for any Wellington constituency; tint from inquiries made today it would appear that the deputation which would have had him champion tin- cause of the now Party was by no means an insignificant one. II contained prominent eimimereial and professional men who could not he suspected of trilling with so grave a question. The only positive safeguard against the complete obliteration of private ownership of property and of private trade and commerce, its spokesman declared, was to tie found in an immediate return to the two-party system whereby (lie whole of the forces exposed lo Communism and Bolshevism v.Vuihl he eniiwdid.atod. Apparently Colonel McDonald has not yet returned a definite reply to the deputation’s appeal, hut. from all accounts. the “Unionist” Party will not he discouraged by a single rebut!.

AN A I’I’E.YL FOR UNION. Another sign of the approach of a general election, and pel'llaps an indication of the general iiiii-i’rtainD as to when it will come, is afforded hv the “Dominion,” which in denouncing “a policy of iteration" takes Mr T. M. Willord. the leader of the Liberal Opposition. to task for having suggested iu Christchurch the other day that the Government was beaten at the election of 1022. “He says the Government was defeated at last election.” it protests, with more vigour than it usually displays in these days. “In

everyone knows, llio Government was returned in u strength approximately Of|iml to tin- combined strength of t-Vio two Opposition I’artics, !lm l with dm additional support of several Independents. sonic of whom wore lie finitely pledged to support it against any possible combination. As matters stand, the Government is supported hv more than hail' the meinhers Of the House of Representatives, ami the two Opposition Rallies, in spite of some past coquetting. are now avowed Iv at dimmers drawn. What was the fortune of the hihera! Rarly in this election in which Air AYillord mistaken lv declares the Government to have been defeated ! Already reduced to a remnant of the great ami poweilul portv of which it < laim.s to he the heir] it suffered a further loss ol strength. Tl has never keen at a lower old, since the Inimoer majority of the late Afr Redden first began ti waste a wave’ The Dominion follows its demonstration of Hie parlous position of the Liberals hy appealing to the Afoderates, hy whatever name t.w may he called, to set aside their personal am hit ions and party prejudices and get together in order to defeat the machinations of the extremists Til E LIBERAL LEAD Lit AAIL&r.D. AVheu seen to-day. Air AVillord declared ho had been highly amused by the “Reform Organ’s” attempt to >e111tie the Liberal Party in general and himself in particular, in order that its own Party might stand before the electors as the only possible saviour ol the country. The “Dominion” Im thought, must have realised it had a vow had ease when it set out to hud comfort for the Reform Party m the -exult of the last general election. Ihe plain fact open for everyone to see lie ~aid was that the Reform Party had never had a majority of the electors at its hack. In 1914 the Reform Party nulled *23-1.471) votes and the LiberalLabour Party 272.131 votes; in 1919 the Reform Party 200,101 votes and the other parties between them 330,200 am in 1922 the Reform Party 260.972 and the other parties 307. 171. It was quite true. Air AYilford admitted, that "bile the Reform vote had increased in the titneneies hv 17.490 between 1914 eonstitnenc u-> i i •mil I'VE? the Liberal-Labour vote had . ililtL -*• * u,.ir-’r.w« l r3«ra

decreased by 83,375. But this was very sa.si!\- explained, atul the “Dominion was welcome 1” such satisfaction as it could obtain from the explanation. In the interval, a period of eight years, a large sec tion of the Liberal-Labour Party had hived off into a party or its own, the Labour Party, and had taken from the other progressive forces 127.042 votes in 1909. and 142.361 votes in 1922. “The ileform Party,” Mr Milford said in conclusion, after discussing several other aspects of the question, ‘‘remains in office to-day through the lack of cohesion among the constitutional and progressive elements in Parliament, the defection of two or three members returned by Liberal electors, and the majority of two it obtained in the Maori electorates. If the Pieform organ is content with this position then it must be much more easily satisfied than are many former supporters of the Party in the country.’ And so the Liberal leader has the last word.