WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1931, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

REFORM AND FUSION,

IMII •COATES STILL SILENT

(Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, July 6.

Another week has passed without Mr Coates making any public reply to the appeal of the Auckland and Wellington commercial and professional men to the leaders of the United ( and Reform parties for the formation of a (National (Government. Mr iiorbes, the Prime Minister, has reiterated his previous statement in the effect that he and his colleagues are ready to place their portfolios in the hands of the GovernorGeneral and to leave Parliament to reconstruct the Cabinet; but Mr Coates, the Leader of the Opposition, who » fortnight or so ago asked for a day or two in which to consult the members of his party, still remains silent so far as the public is concerned. The story abroad is to the effect that the members of the Reform Party, inside and outside of Parliament, are so evenly divided in regard to the propriety of “fusion” that Mr Coates is hesitating to make a decision.

LABOUR’S PART. A rumour is about that a large proportion of the Reform members of the iHouse—at least one half of them—and a considerably larger proportion of the Reformers outside—are not contemplating with satisfaction the prospect of their party holding possession of t*he Treasury benches by virtue of the goodwill of the .Labour Party. The idea of ‘Reform getting back to the House with tiie phenomenal position it secured in 1925, a majority of twenty-four European seats is contemplated By no one. Jn 1928 it lost 53,682 votes, to say nothing of those it should have secured from new voters, and twenty-six, just one half, of its fifty-two European electors. It is plain enough, therefore, that if Reform, by the operation of a defective system of election, should be placed at the head of the poll it still would have to look to one or other of the other parties for its existence.

PROVOKING STRIFE. In the House on Friday Mr 0. E. Holland, the leader of the Labour Party, seemed anxious to make it appear that there was a conspiracy between the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition. “Is it a fact,” he asked, seeming to address no one in particular, .“that the leader of the Opposition was full acquainted with the contents of the Rill before it, was presented to the 'House ?” “He was not,” Mr Coates retorted promptly and with emphasis, “he was not.” “Will the Minister of (Labour,” Mr Holland then asked, “take the ’House into his confidence and tell us what part the leader of the Opposition played in the drafting of the Bill?” “None whatever,” Mr Forbes retorted op behalf of his colleague. Later on 'Mr Parry, the Labour member for Auckland Central, pressed Mr Holland’s questions upon Mr Ooates, but the leader of the Opposition declined further; crossexamination.

UNSPORTING. The Hon. C. J. Garland, one of Mr Coates’ first nominations to the Legislative Council, enlarging upon a hint passed to him across the Chamber on Friday, cast a wholly inexcusable innunedo upon the Prime Minister. ‘‘New Zealand is a democratic country,” he said, ‘‘and’ nobody at the last election had suggested fusion. Nothing would have been hoard about it even at 'this •stage if Mr Holland had not picked up his kit and refused to support the Government.” It had been hoped that the tone of the Legislative Council had been materially improved under the long leadership of Sir Francis Bell, but it nould seem that one of Mr Coates’ earliest nominations to the Chamber had brought to its counsels a gentleman lacking for the moment in both courtesy and accuracy. His assertion that Mr Forbes suggested a National 'Government in order to maintain his 'own political position showed him to be as unaware •of facts, as he was unacquainted with manners.