WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

A PRIME MINISTER’S' UNDERSTUDY.

A PHILOSOPHIC POLITICIAN.

(Special 'Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 21

In the course'of- a -casual chat in one deserted lobbies of the House of Parliament this morning, the Hon. G. AA 7 . Forbes, the Minister of Lands and Agriculture, and incidentally the Prime Minister’s understudy, alluded quite appreciatively to the bearing of both the*members of the Reform Party and the members of the Labour Party diiring the recent session. There whs now Sind again, he said, unnecessary fervour imparted to the speeches of critics of the* Government, but those lapses were less frequent than similar lapses had been during many previous sessions.. This had been particularly noticeable since the Prime Minister had been compelled by illness to absent himself from the House. This was not to say there had been a falling off in sound and incisive criticism. Nothing of the sort. Ministers, in the-absence of their leader had b'een reminded of their sins of commissioH and, Omission just as emphatically' ;as 'they would have been had he been present. That was quite, within tlm rules of the game and consistent .with feiir playi. • .

WORK OF THE SESSION. Mr Forfe, sfcoffccl at the idea that the session just closed had been a fruitless one! ’ It' was quite true, he said, that a quniber of.tfie, proposals of the Government still had to be put into operation. But Sir Joseph Ward was no more pledged to give efFect to the whole of his policy within a single session when Mr Massey sixteen years before was pledged to give effect at once to the policy he had been preparing for a dozen years. Even Mr Coates, with a majority only second to the huge one secured by Mr Sleddon twenty years before, did not give •effect to the whole,. of his election oledges d’pryig t|.e three.yeaps he enjoyed this ‘ enormous . advantage. These facts, Mr- Forbes hastened to sav, were not recalje^. as reproaches to Mr AJasgey or, -jVjjj Coates; but; by, way of the .realisation of a Party’s. p:;om(ses sometimes ■is delayed by .cjrcumstaqpes. , It would, be. time enough, the Prime,. Minister’s understudy thought, to criticise the United Government in , thjs, yespeet when it had ; ,exhausted all, its, opportunities. ~... .... ■.

THE FUTURE. Tlie political future has no terrors for Mr Forbes. The events of to-day he regards as. of more concent than he gifts' of to-morrow. ' He frankly admits the difficulties besetting the teoverrintenU as • a ’consequence of the thf’eb' i>arty system -having taken possess!dir' of ( the Hous'g of n -Representatives.," It is all very' well for 1 our friends in the country to tell us we shoulcf'do’ 1 this, that‘arid the other thing,” he emphasizes, “ but they do not take full:account of. the! position. Whether tthe tliree party bystem has come to stay, is a question none of us can answer with much convfidence;; but if it is always to be with

us we shall have to adjust our ways to its requirements; and the process may be a little tedious. The Imperial Parliament in this respect is in much the same position as our own at the present time, and its solution of the problem may be helpful to the Dominion in the future.” As a policy measure Air Forbes leaves electoral reform to his chief.

THE, PI-ELECTION. :I * v Mr .Forbes,*'as the Minister in close attendance upon the. Premier, .will account himself lucky if he gets away to his farm for » ’ couple >of da'vs at Christmas-tide. Meanwhile he has had added multitudinous duties an appropriate interest in the byelection brought about by the Hon. T. M. Milford’s removal to London. Curiously ‘fepugh 'Mr Kerr, the United creMidate' 1 fern the vacant seat, and Mr Forbes have been fast friends for many years' without any expectation of the Hutt constituency looking for any other, representative that Mr Milford. The popular opinion is that the contest for the seat will lie between Mr Kerr ,&nd Mr,.Nash, the Labour candidate, and that his long residence in the district, his'personal popularity and his out-and-out “ Liberalism ” will pull Mr Kerr through. Mr Harold Johnston, the Reform candidate, has many, personal friends everywhere, hut he has turned to practical politics somewhat late’in life, and has none of the/vim. of enthusiasm. Mr Bennett, the Independent candidate, is likely to he crowded out by the more definite aspirations of his opponents.