WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1925, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

Til 10 POLITICAL POSITION. INCREASING INTEREST. (Special to “Guardian".) WELLINGTON, May IS. Tiie political position is proving as interesting as it promised to lie on .Mr Massev’s removal Irom the scene. Sir Francis Hell’s appointment as Prime .Minister, practically the only possible arrangement in the circumstances, is regarded merely as a temporary expedient, intcnrled to span over the few weeks before the Reform members of the House of Representatives can come together and choose their party leadei. Though Sir Francis in the statement he issued to the press immediately after the funeral of the late Prime -Minister declared that "the death of Mr Masse.,. did not automatically terminate the rental tenure of other members ol the Government and Executive Council,” his first act alter being appointed was to advise the Governor-General Hi at ••the surviving members of too .Ministry should be confirmed in their *'-pective appointments.” This advice wars accented. ImL just why the formality should have been necessary if the ‘•actual tenure” of the surviving members 0 f the Government had not been terminated by Mr Massey s death is not vary obvious. However, this point is of no consequence. The fact is that Mr Massey’s eleven colleagues remain in office and “ at a very early date.’ to quote Sr Francis’s own words. " will he it shod to choose the party leader in the House and in the country." Meanwhile Sir Francis has given his friends to understand that he has no wish to retain the leadership himsell. nor tiny intention of seeking election to the House as a qualification for the position.

CHOICE OF -V LEADER. This i> not a case of sour grapes with Sir Francis. Had he wished to retain the leadership he would have had no difficulty in obtaining the nomination for the Franklin seat, which Mr Massey filled so long, and the mnua of of his dead chief would have been sufijeient to secure his election even it the Opposition had been foolish enough to put a candidate in the field against him. lint there is authority for saying that his aspirations do not lie in that direction and that lie accepted the leadership temporarily simply to facilitate the permanent arrangements to ho made Inter on. Mr Massey’s own portfolio of Finance, in the same way. has been taken over by Mr Nosworthv, the Minister of Agriculture, who. it is perfeellv sale to say. would not contemplate with cqunnimitv the prospect ol being left in charge of the Treasury during the approaching session. Speculation as to the ultimate leadership does not take a very wide range, the local newspapers mentioning only Mr Downie Stewart. Mr .). G. Coates and Mi- A. I). McLeod in this connection, the Minister of Lands, it would appear bein' 1 : regarded as onlv a very remote possibility. There is a wide-spread opinion. expressed emphatically hv the " Post " and endorsed by the business community that but for bis war disabilities Mr Stewart would be easily the best equipped of the candidates lor the high office, and it may he the whole question will turn on the measure ol relief the American doctors are able to give the Minister of Customs.

THE FI'S lON CAMPAIGN. The advocates of a fusion between the Reformers and the Liberals as a saleguard against the threatened dominance of Labour are renewing their appeals to the two old narties to adjust. I heir ilt IV-'re tiers and coma together in pcaie and amity to save l lie Dominion from 1 1::» machinations ol Mr 11. E. itotland am! bis associates, whose intemperate speci In's have gone far to justify the alarm of their critics. There are indications, however, that, the |ire.*cut custodians of the policy of the iteform Party arc not so well disj ■ ■■(!' towards this step as Mr Massey appeared to lie during the last year or two of Ids leadership. "It i-. lar better." the Dominion" declared in discussing the question the other day, “that the Reform Party, as a party, .shout ! place itself in the hands ol the i :•>•:nLi-y on a clear and definite programme if sound progress than it should sect: to retain nllire by tiny kind of bargaining.” If this is the new attiLiidc of the pnrtv that was ready in enter into negotiations with the Liberals a year ago there certainly will be no " bai gaining ” between them b-el'or.' ihe impending general election. Wlml will happen alter the eletinn remains to be seen. Meanwhile Lite Liberal members of the House are very reticent tvnccrniug their in! entions. having

"nothing to comm union to to the pr-s- " alter their meeting in Wellington last week, but it eanmil lie .supposed Unit their prospects at the polls have been impaired by the altered conditions. LABOUR. There can lie no doubt that Labour Won Ii I be glad to sen ii i omplele lltsir.ll b'tweeii tile Liberals and Reformers particularly if it were etfeeted on the eve of a general election, when " fusing’’ politicians would have neither time mu' opportunity to make their position perfectly clear to the electors. To have, both Reformers and Liberals ('..'iifi ssing that the “ great principles” for which they had stood through the years were really of particular account would furnish the enemy with much acceptable platform ammunition. Apparently something of this sort was in the mind of the “ Dominion ” when it suggested that it would he better for Reform to go to the pells with its own

“ definite programme ’’ than to resort to any kind of bargaining with its Liberal, opponents. That, however, is a matter for the parties. Labour's hope is that a fusion between the Reformers and the Liberals would he followed by a drift of many votes from both the older parties to Labour and that in due course I,about' would graduate from the official Opposition to the accepted Government. What ground Labour has lor this pleasing prospect can only be

a matter for conjecture, but it is worth recalling that between the election of 1019 and the election of 1922. perhaps the period of its greatest activity, its proportion of votes polled made no progress at all, as a matter of fact declining from 23.1 to 23.2 per cent. During that period, at any rate, its " menace " became no more alarming.