WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 August 1932, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

A HAPPY FAMILY. THE COALITION CABINET. (From a Correspondent). X - WELLINGTON, August 11. The cordial relations wliich .exist between the members of the Coalition Government again were demonstrated lit a .gathering of electors at Dannevirke during the week-end when the Hon., Adam Hamilton, Postmaster General, and. Acting Minister of .Employment, was the guest of the Hon. E. A. Ransom, tlie Minister of Lands, in that gentleman’s uncontested constituency. As v. etiquette , required Mr Hamilton was the first speaker, at the casual, gathering land he took the opportunity, it afforded .to refute certain stories cqncerhing the relations between the members, of the Cabinet. “Some people outskb pblitics,” he told the -cordial audience, “are saying we are not playing .tile game and that wo are not a happy family.. That is all-nonsense. No Cabinet ever l has been on better terms all round than is the orie now in exist- 1 ehfce.” Mr Ransom when his turn to speak came round emphatically endbi’sedv his> cdlleaglie’s statement, and declared tliat the first concern of the G’oyerriineht was the promotion of the interests of the public as a whole.

OUTSIDE INFLUENCE. ' If there is any serious dissension in the ficilse of Representatives at the preterit time, apart from tlie iibrnial opposition of .tjie Labour.Party and the hesitancy of half a dozen Independents, it is dde to the activities of, tile Reform Club, an institution wliibh seems benc> llpcri keeping the Reform Party alive while Mr Coates and the other Reform nlembers.of the Cabinet devote themselves to the greater concerns of the ' Dominion. There is no suggestion, that Mr, Coates ahd iiis Reform colleagues are less loy al to the Coalition compact, than arcMr Forbes and his United chllhagues: blit some of Mr Coates’ friends outside Parliament are less puhctilious in this respect than are the majority of Mr Fbrhes;’ associates. The Reform Club, quite within its rights, of course is sysfematicaily educating its niembers in regard to political and party, niatters in preparation for the time when the present. Government will be dissolved. It regards the present Ministry simply as a temporary con- 1 venience.

FOR THE FUTURE. '

In presenting vhe platform of the. Reform Club which, it may he well to reiterate, does not include tlie Reform' members of the Coalition Govefnment—Mr, Johnston becomes the very- capable leader of what •niay be designated the party P Side of the or- 1 ganisation. “The question far the Re-' from Party to decide,’Vhe stated to •a large,.bodyi,of adherents the jr.he r day, substituting the . term party for tliat df club;.Vj“is-;wHfetlier ;.it i. jinr to make opposition to State intervention .-a • live": policy' or nob? In ‘*n opinion unless we t.b..so «e are a!*»o lutely . doomed'.'’ Business people, w are "'told ihy. this, authority, are k-pp-. ing out of politics; not only keeping out of them, indeed, but aoVnaliy refusing to support them Wth t-*■> ex. use that it is.not their, business to meddle with them.” This , attitude on the part of the business me* Mr fc hasten regards as Tight,: lown heresy and scathes the offenders , accordingly Maybe his. victims think the ’ ii'*<- opfor parry strife. v

THE BETTER WAY. During tlie - Great. War Mr Johnston was away from this- country living a man’s part: in che long strugr-e' ±or the fr.edcin of-the v. arid. 1!<- m;:y be reminded of the happenings here during his absence. Eor four years party politics were eschewed throughout tlie Dominion, i At:ti;e tvi'ic’hatibn.. of the war Mr Massey, the leader of-the. National Ministry from August 12, 1915 to August 21, 1919, made a statement'which may be numbered amongst th.e greatest of liis pronounce: ments. “I kfleVv we were, approaching dissolution of paftnership,'’ lie said. “I can only add that the coalition, if such it may 'be fu 1 filled its pdrpose. It enabled New Zealand to do -its full* share iri the war, which effort would not have been- possible under the ordinary party system, except with a majority of something like twenty, which is not possessed by any party in the State. There ho bitterness; we part Oil friendly terras.” To-day this Dominion is involved in anbthbr, War, a bloodless war, in whhh unanimity and patriotism should Ve the saviour of the individual and the Statef 4