WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 October 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE LIBERAL PARTY SIR JOSEPH WAR TVS VIEW. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, Oct. 10. Sir Joseph Ward’s review of the present position of the Liberal Party, which was broadcasted on Saturday, formed the subject of interested discussion in political circles here during the week-end. Since his reappearance in tiie House of Representatives fifteen months ago. after an absence of six or seven years, Sir Joseph has effectively dissipated the wide-spread notion that his political course was run and that he was out of touch with the public affairs of the Dominion. He made it quite plain last session that lie was just as alert as ever he had been and that during his exclusion from Parliament he had ke'pt himself fully informed as to what was going on 'within its walls. He never was a profound political economist nor a soul-stirring orator, his learning for the most part having been acquired in the busy school of affairs; but be always was a man of broad vision and ready perception, and these qualities remain with him to-day, quickened, it would seem, in some respects by the opportunities lie has had to view the political machine from the outside. Proverbially the looker-on sees most of the game, and Sir Joseph has not lacked opportunities to turn this advantage to nccount.

WHO WILL LEAR ? • In the course of his review of the position, however. Sir Joseph made it abundantly clear that he was not aspiring to a monopoly of the task of resuscitating the- Liberal Party. Ho might twenty years ago cheerfully have undertaken as much as that, but today he recognises that the first step towards the restoration of the old order must be “the consolidation of the progressive elements in the House” and an agreement between Liberals, Nationalists and Independents of practically the same creed. “Unanimity, candour, confidence and a certain measure of self-sacrifice” are among the conditions he is demanding, and these, of course, can ho imposed only upon a consenting party. No one is better qualified than Sir Joseph is to propound them, and on the Liberal side of the present House, no one is more fitted to apply them; hut the resuscitation of the Liberal, in any case, must he an exacting task, and having regard to bis years and his numerous activities apart from politics, he may think twice before taking up the burden. On purely personal grounds, at any rate, it could offer him few attractions.

SLOW PROGRESS. The courteous and long-suffering “Evening Post” is moved to a mild protest by the slow progress that is being made by Parliament with business which really matters. “The Customs Tariff,” it complains “has yet to lie considered in detail. Reform of direct taxation has been further ps:s*poned, alter an ill-considered so-called adjustment and vague references to the fiscal difficulty of altering the inequitable levy on companies. The Rural Intermediate Credit Bill has appeared, hut lias not yet been dealt with and important measures which have not been brought down include Licensing and Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment. . . . Arbitration and Licensing amendments should he introduced at the earliest possible moment. . . . The Imperial Cinferencdebate also should he fixed for an earl date. After the good start made by Mr Coates in arranging for a more ordered and serious attention to imperial Affairs, it would be lamentab'c if lie reverted to the had old habit of the past and left the Imperial Conference discussion till the closing days of the session, when members are exhausted and tumble to give much attention to anything except the votes they hope to find on the Supplementary Estimates.” The Prime Minister lias protested and even threatened, but the wheels of the legislative machine si ill refuse to go round any faster. DISTANT REFORMS

Licensing reform and Bible-in-Schools continue to command a good deal of .attention from the politicians and the public, hut the probability of Parliament having any adequate opportunity to deal with them during the present session is receding further and further into the far distance. The local papers have opened their correspondence columns widely to the controversialists and if their readers do not hr low all there is to know about the two proposals it is their own fault. The Prohibitionists, on one side, bv denouncing tire State Control issue, and the Moderates, on the other side, hv opposing the adoption of preferential voting, have driven many broad-mind-ed people into pronouncing a plague upon both sides, and it is unlikely any radical change will he made in the licensing laws din ing the present .session of Parliament. As for the Biblc-in-Schools agitation, this appears to have lost much of its vim during the progress of the committee’s inquiry. The Hon L. M. Tsiffc, the official leader of the Religious Exercises movement, now places his ultimate yietory as far away as 1930, in tire second session of the next Parliament, but even this measure of optimism seems to rest on the assumption that there will be an outburst of indignation throughout the constituencies when they realise next session that his appeal to a body of unenlightened politicians has failed.