WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 July 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

COMMONWEALTH AND DOMINION SIR JOSEPH WARD’S IMPRESSIONS. (Special to '‘Guardian".) WELLINGTON. July 7. Sir Ju.-fph Ward, uho returned from hi., visit to Australia on Tuesday, caught a tiresome cold on the way acro.,, and probably will not Lake his seat in the House till the beginning ot imxt week. Meanwhile he is not disposed to discuss the polities of either -ide of (lie Tasman Sea. His trip to the Commonwealth was purely a private one. but he met many of his oi'd friends and was taken into their confidence concerning public affairs. He gathered that the feeling of the great majority of the Australian people remained entirely friendly towards New Zealand, and personally he had many indications of this being the ease. But in some quarters there seemed to he smouldering dissatisfaction in regard to tariffs and embargoes and an overreadiness to put the Dominion in the wrong. As far as he could judge. Sir Joseph went on to say. the lion. A. I). McLeod had made a very good impression during his recent visits to Sydney and Melbourne and certainly had done a good deal to propitiate the official mind, it would lie a good thing, Sir Joseph thought, if Australians and New Zealanders saw more of one another. Their destinies were so closeIv interwoven that they coin'd not

afford to live apart. HOME AFFAIRS. Sir Joseph (lid not need to lie told he had missed i'ittle hy being absent from the House of Representatives during the first fortnight of the session. He realised, however, that the session must be a very long one and that much of the promised legislation would he of a highly contentious character. It was easy to see now that a good deal ot work held over from last session could have been put through without any difficulty at all last session in the absence of the Prime Minister, whose attendance at the Imperial Conference of course was imperative. But no good purpose coin'd he served by haggling over that-point, and the duty of Parliament now was to push on with the business of the session as speedily as might he without impairing the quality of its work, lit' did not wish to impose his advice upon any section of the House, hut he hoped his friends ol the Labour Party would not think it necessary to multiply much further their motions of no-confidence. This kind ot thing not only delayed the progress ol important business, hut it inevitably increased flic acrimony of party polities and to that extent decreased the efficiency of the House. THAT BALLOT PAPER. The official Moderates and the official Prohibitionists the champions of license on one side and the champions of no-license on the other—continue to squabble in the correspondence columns over rim wording of the ballot paper that is to decide their fates afresh, towards the end of next year. Of

course each party is trying to make out that the other party is seeking hy some devious way to obtain an unfair advantage in the strife. The .Moderates hold that a two-issue bali'ot paper will play into the hands of the Prohibitionists and the Prohibitionists mainlain that a three-issue ballot paper just as certainly will again give the battle tn their antagonists. Neither party will listen to the suggestion that a perfect register of the will of the majority of the electors would be obtained hy a three-issue ballot paper, as at present, with a preferential' system of voting. If under such a system the elector were required to place figure one against his first preference and the figure two against his second preference all danger of a miscarriage of popular opinion would he removed. Each issue could then lie pitied against each other issue, and Continuance, State Control and No-License all would have played their legitimate part in the contest without doing injustice to any

set of voters. GETTING THINGS DONE. Tn the course of his contribution L the Address-in-Reply debate in flu House of Representatives on Tuesday Air E. A. Ransom, the member frn Pahiatun, told a most extraordinary story of a constituent of his who had gone from Dannevirko to Wellington to ask the Prime Minister for a loan from the'Advances Department and had returned home with the money’ in his pocket. Mr Coates was in the House at the time and asked the member for Pahiatua where the lucky borrower had obtained the money. “He applied to the Advances to Setti'ers’ branch,” Mr Ransom reiterated. “ 1 met him outside the Post Office at Dannevirko, and lie asked me if the Prime Minister was in Wellington. I said that [ did not know, hut that if lie rang up he could soon find out. Afterwards lie said he went to AVelilngton, saw the Prime Minister, and came hack with the money in his pocket. That is the man who gets things done.” The story seems almost incredible, since applicants in scores have been waiting for months and months for advances which have been granted after tlie most sonrelfing investigations; hut at the time of writing it remains uncontradicted.