WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1931, Page 6

WELLINGTON NEWS

THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK. GATHERING FORCES. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 16. There is a wide-spread impression hi political circles here, that the approaching session of Parliament will not be prolonged far beyond the close of August, and that Mr Forbes, if not,driven to an appeal to the constituencies earlier, will submit himself and his party to the judgment of the electors in late September or early October. Both the Reform Party and the Labour Party are making 'arrangements for such a development, and though they are not likely to openly co-oper-ate towards ousting the United Government, it is fairly certain they independently will move towards that end. The leader or the Labour Party "has declared that Mr Forbes and his colleagues, having “cut” wages and salaries and renounced “doles”, must go, and no doubt lie will have the ready assistance of many of his followers towards that end. Organised Labour is distinctly “agin” the Government. FUSION. Mr Coates and bis many political and personal admirers continue to talk of “fusion” as if it were some mysterious measure by which the rights of the individual were ignored and the independence of the party destroyed. :At"a meeting of supporters of the Reform Party at Pa.ekakariki at the week-end it was resolved “That this conference representative of the whole of the supporters of the Reform Party in the Otaki electorate affirms its .loyalty arid confidence in its leader, the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, and further that this conference heartily endorses his action in regard to fusion.” Resolutions of this kind are being adopted wherever, half a dozen or more Re ormers are gathered together: and yet it is safe to say that not more than one in each half dozen knows what fusion in this particular case really means.

/ CO-OPERATION

Air Forbes’s suggestion to the members of the House of Representatives in general and to the Leader of the Opposition in particular was that. the present members of the Cabinet should resign their positions and leave the House as a whole to frariie a Cabinet independent of party. It would have been a somewhat hazardous experimnet and perhaps an impracticable one, even i. Labour had been excluded from the venture, but it would have been a very gallant way of determining the sincerity of the United and. Reform Parties. The Prime Minister was ready to submit the position, to the House as a whole and to accept the result as it might be. The Leader of the Opposition, however, wished first to see what would happen at the approaching general election. This may. have been prudent, hut it was not on the face of it sporting, seeing that the Prime Minister was ready to risk everything. MINISTER OF FINANCE, v One great advantage to the House and to the country arising out of the “fusion” of the two older parties in the House would have been tile association of the Hon. W. Downie Stewart with the Minister of Finance or with tlie portfolio itself. Mr Massey when he lost the services of Sir James Allen in the House found it encumbent upon himself to take up the burdens of the Treasury. When Air Alassey passed away to lie succeeded by Mr Coates the new Prime Minister did not pose as a financier and finally lie committed the Treasury to the qualified hands of Mr Stewart. Had Air Coates seen the advantages of “fusion” in the present financial difficulties ' besetting the country he surely would have brought across the floor of the House his former colleague and it would have been strange indeed had not this gentleman been given an opportunity to again demonstrate his worth.