WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 September 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE ROSKILL SEAT. - DISSATISFIED REFORMERS. (Special to 11 Guardian ".) WELLINGTON, September 6. The dissatisfaction of a largo number of Reform supporters at the selection of Miss Melville as tho party's candidate for tho Roskill seat at tho approaching genoral election, reported from Auckland to-day, was not unexpected hero. The Prime Minister promptly tolegraphed congratulations to Miss Molvillo when her selection was announced a week or so ago riWd doubtless was sincere enough in the welcome ho oxtended to her; but there were less chivalrous members of the party who took no pains to disguise their dissatisfaction at tho turn of events. Mr Potter, the present holder of tho Roskill seat, refuses to be drawn on tho subject, hut his personal friends in tho House declare that ho has been badly treated by those in authority and that tho selection of Miss Melville will not ho endorsed-by a majority of the Reform voters. Independent opinion, however, js that Miss Melville would make a very admirable pioneer of her sex in the House and that her presence there would be a distinct advantage to Reform.

POLITICAL MYSTERIES. Tho Hon. A. D. McLeod, tho -Minister of Lands, by some strange means, has got it into his particularly sane head that numbers of disgruntled small farmers are drifting into the camp of the Labour Party. Under the bending “ Political Mysteries ” tho “Post” quotes from an Auckland newspaper a demand for chapter and verse for tho Minister’s strange delusion. “Tho mystery is,” tho northern journal declares, “whether the Farmers’ Union has decided to abandon its attitued of neutrality in politics to sponsor the Country Parly and to work amicably in certain electorates wijh the Labour Party. If so when" was that decision made and by wlia't authority?” The bogey of an alliance between the Labour Party and the Country Party, which appears to he worrying Mr McLeod, is, of course, a flagrant delusion. The Labour Party might be glad enough to pick up a few unattached votes in the rural districts, but it could not expect to secure a sufficient number to 'materially affect its fortunes in a single instance. The Minister df Lands may make his mind quite easy on this point. A DANIEL TO JUDGMENT.

Judging from the statement lie made to a. representative of the “Post” yesterday, Mr W. J. Poison, the president of the Parers’ Union, who is in the field as an opponent to the Minister of Agriculture at the approaching general election, still has a good deal to learn concerning the inside working of Parliament. He will find the House of Representnitves a much less amenable body than lie has made the Executive of the Farmers’ Union, and it will take him a session or more to mould it into the shape he thinks it should assume. During the process he may find, as many another stalwart has found, that the effort is scarcely worth while, and that the acceptance of the existing conditions, is, after all, the quickest way to obtain results. The man who has done so much for the Farmers’ Union, however, may do a good deal for the country. He has vision and high aspirations, knowledge and fortitude, and given his opportunity he will ho a distinct acquisition to the House.

THE SESSION. Members df the House of Representatives already are talking of getting back to their homes, meaning their constituencies, by the middle of next month, and it looks ns if the Government were well disposed towards facilitating their early departure. So far the session hfis been a very fruitless one, as far ns useful legislation is concerned, and in ordinary circumstances there would remain a good deal to he done. But the circumstances arc not ordinary, and Ministers, as well as private members, will be glad to get about their own business. The Licensing Bill is the only big obstacle standing in the way oi an early prorogation, and the chances are that this will he passed on to a more convenient occasion. Compromises of one kind and another have been suggested. hut none of them appears to have been acceptable to a majority of those concerned and it' looks as if the electors "themselves would be left to solve the problem. Tbe local daylight saving measure is hedged around with difficulties and this too may get no further than the committee to which it has been referred.