WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1925, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

TilE IMPENDING ELECTION. PROSPECTS OK FUSION. (Special to "Guardi*, n”.) WELLINGTON, August 20. A Reform member of the Mouse, untrammelled by office, but enjoying the full confidence of his party, stated this morning that there was a growing loeling on bis side of polities that definite fusion between the older parties should take place before the general election. With the present loose understanding between the Reformers and the Liberals. he maintained, it was impossible for them to contest an election without being driven apart by the personal dissensions which inevitably arose on such occasions, lie thought himself that bis side would come hack with a working majority in the next Parliament, and the Minister in charge of ibe party organisation was confident of this being the ease; but, he added, there always was the proverbial peril of ;l -lip between the enp and the lip, r.ml Labour’s hope of securing twentylive seats were realised it would require only fifteen embittered Liberals to make the position much worse than it. was at the present time. His view, be declared, was shared by other moiiv hers of his party and he could not understand whv Mr W illord’s last olfei of the immediate formation of a National Party under the leadership of Mr Coates with authority to re-ap-point all his present colleagues in the Ministry, if lie thought lit. was not accepted. LABOUR'S OPTIMISM. Labour expresses itsell as confident of securing five or six additional seats at the approaching elections, and if the Reformers and Liberals persist in culling one another's throats at the’ polls its optimism may be easily justified. It is admitted by both the older (laities that many ol their votes were east for Labour at the last general election when there was no candidate of tlieir own particular colour ill the field, and that this was the ease, in a lessor degree, at the recent franklin by-election may be gathered from, even a superficial examination of the figures. The result of both. Reform and Liberal, votes being given to Labour candidates was, of course, to make the • total Labour vote appear much larger than it really was, and to spread abroad the impression that Socialists, Communists and even more undesirable extremists were gathering strength throughout the country. As a matter ol fact the Labour vote, in proportion to the total vote, made no advance at all between 191!) and 1022. If the Reformers and Lite Liberals got close enough together to prefer one 1 notlier to the alternative of Labour. the menace of revolutionary socjalisin would assume very insignificant proportions. It is a danger largely ol their own creation that is now driving them to the expedient ol iusioti. DAYLIGHT SAYING.

The persistent member lor Dunedin South again has had the chagrin of seeing his Summer Time Hill killed in its eoinm.ittee stage in the House of Representatives liy the narrow majority of one vote. The voting probably represented fairly closely the division of public opinion in the Dominion on the question. The "Ayes ’ were composed almost entirely of the representatives of urban and suburban constituencies, and the " Noes" almost entirely of the representatives of rural constituencies. Party differences did not enter into the ouestion, for though the six Ministers that voted. Messrs Holland, Coates. McLeod. Nosvnrthy, .-Nr Maui I’oinare and Kir Heaton Rhodes, all voted with the " Noes,” this was due mainly to their representing country electorates, where the needs of the cow and tl e convenience of her attendant- have to lie con-iilt-ed. On the other hand, Labour was nine strong in the " Ayes” lobby. Messrs Armstrong. .lordan, McCombs. MHlvride, Motiteith, Munro. O’Jlricn, Ravage and Sullivan all expressing the view of tlieir city const ilueiil s in -pile of lhfir fact that Iheir leader, Mr 11. Holland, who represents an aspiring dairy community in the' South Island, went into the' "Noes " lobby with the Ministers and the landed aristocracy. The "brothers Rolleston again were divided in the same way, the representative of the thriving town of Tim:tni voting for the saving of the Rill, and the representative of the empty spaces of Waitomo, assisting in its destruction. And so the measure lies buried in Mr Kidney’s breastpocket for another year. THE FLEET. Wellington continues to make good with fhe men of the American Fleet. It is plain enough now flint iho weather alone was to blame for the partial failure of the arrangements made for the entei'lainm.ont of the visitors during their iirsi few days in the city. .Since the sun shone out on Sunday neither ollieers nor men have had cause for complaint of any lack of hospitality. Friends on all sides have met them a great deal more than half way, and while the townpeople have Hocked to the warships in their thousands, the visitors have found warm welcome in hundreds of homes. Admiral Coontz lots declared enthusiastically that the men are having a splendid time and has added on his own account that lie “ loves Wellington and its folk.” People who have picked up American acquaintance's in the street, almost promiscuously and taken them to tearooms, to places of amusement or to their own homes, speak in the highest terms of the hearing of the men, of tlieir wide knowledge and of tlieir broad outlook upon life. The people of Wellington, in fact, have forgotten that the visitors do not look exactly like British sailors, and haxe admitted them to a warm place in tlieir regard as much for tlieir own suites as for the sake of the great country they represent.