PRIME MINISTER’S HEALTH

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1930, Page 7

PRIME MINISTER’S HEALTH

EARLY SESSION LIKELY,

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE THIS YEAR.

WELLINGTON, Jan.', 20,

To-morrow the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward,: will leave' Wellington for Rotorua. He has , sufficiently recovered his physical strength to liove about, and his main concern now is to get treatment for the muscles of his legs, which h|aye given considerable trouble. He anticipates that with massage treatment and baths his vigour will be fully restored,' and that lie will be able to take his usual active part in. the administration- .

For several weeks the Prime' Minister in his Heretaunga home has been daily receiving a large 'number .of visitors, including his departmental heads and members of Cabinet,, and there is a very, optimistic feeling - regarding his ability to make a good recovery. ‘Such a happy event will have immediate political, results of high iniportance.

It is geperall known that the next meeting of the' Imperial Conference takes place tills year, and that the date has been tentatively fixed for June, 'therefore it may be taken for granted that with improved health Sir Joseph, Ward’s plans will provide for calling Parliament at an early date, probably in February, for a short session, devoted exclusively to finance and designed to bridge the gap between the usual date for the session’s opening, which is the end of June, and an ordinary business meeting of Parliament to commence in August.

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE RECORD. Sir Joseph Ward’s reappearance at an Imperial Conference will create an interesting Imperial record, for if he attends the 1930 gathering of Prune Ministers it will be the thirteenth occasion of that kind. Sir Joseph Ward was Prime Minister wben he attended his tenth Imperial? Conference, in 1911, and lie accompanied the late Mr Massey as a member of the War Coalition Government' to the Imperial War Cabinet meetings in .1916 and to the Peace Conference of 1919. As a.member of the Imperial-Conference of ,1911 the present Prime, Minister introduced his scheme for an Imperial Council.- It was not adopted, principally owing-to the fear that such an organisation' would overlap the directly representative Parliaments of the Empire. Sir Joseph, however, contended that, life never contemplated the possibility of bis; plan being accepted as an - organised system, but that it affirmed the necessity of an Imperial organisation, particularly for defence. Events to a great extent, justified Sir Joseph’s attitude,. because effective Imperial co* operation for the use of the navies of the Empire under one command in time of war was evolved long before stern necessity required this plan, while an Imperial War Cabinet, representative of all parts of the Empire, was called together during the Great War, New Zealand’s representatives being the former Prime Minister, Mr Massey, and' his colleague in the Na-tional-Government, Sir Joseph Ward.

SIR JOSEPH WARD. WELLINGTON, Jan. 22. Looking particularly well, the Prime Minister left Wellington by the Limited Express last night for Rotorua where ho is to receive special treatment. “I am feeling almost ,as fit as a fiddle,” said Sir Joseph,, just prior to his departure. “I have sufficiently recovered from my recent illness,” he said, “to take a trip to Rotorua and I confidently expect as a result of special treatment 1 shall receive there, I shall before long be able to return to my office. In the meantime I shall *be in direct telephone communication with my office daily.” NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT. NOT MEETING EARLY. WELLINGTON, Jan. 21. There is absolutely no truth in the rumour, said the Prime Minister tonight, that Parliament would be called together next month, so as to enable him to attend the next Imperial Conference. No date for the opening of Parliament had yet bean fixed.