POLITICAL SITUATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1085, 21 December 1911, Page 3

POLITICAL SITUATION.

HOW IP IS VIEWED

The Otago Daily Times, iu analysing the election results, assigns Messrs Rhodes, Clark, Isitt, and Coates among the Independents, and Mr ilindmatsh labour) to the Government, and Messrs Atmore (Independent), and Payne, Veitch and Robertson (Labour) to the Opposition, thus bringing the Ministerial total to 36, and the Opposition to 41, and giving the latter an absolute majority in the House. It then proceeds : “ Will the Government resign ? That is the practical question about which the public will to-day be curious. It is plain—though Sir Joseph Ward professes his inability at present to see it—that Ministers are iu a minority. When every allowance is made iu their favour, thay cannot muster oue half of the new House. The established practice lor the past thirty years in Home politics has been that when the vote of the electorates is unfavourable to a Government, the Prime Minister does not wait tor formal expulsion from office by Parliament before he tenders his resignation. The custom at one time was certainly for the Government to accept its dismissal only from Parliament assembled. Mr Disraeli, however, departed from this custom iu IS6B, and the precedent that was then established by him has been followed ever siuce iu British politics, and has been observed also in the Dominion. If, however, Sir Joseph Ward is not immediately prepared to accept the votes of the electors, as notice to the Government to quit, it is clear that Parliament should be summoued to meet at the earliest possible date in order that it may have the opportunity of expressing its judgment on the question whether the present Ministers are to be allowed to continue in office. That a Government which does not possess the confidence of the electors should remain in power is highly undesirable, and if Ministers protess to be doubtful concerning the effect of the vole which electors have recorded, the only way whereby their doubts may be dissolved is by submission of the point to an early session of Parliament.” The Auckland Star says: ‘‘ln spite of the fact that Liberalism is still supported by a great majority of the voters throughout the Dominion the Liberal Government after twenty-one years of success, has at last met defeat, if not disaster. Whether we explain this sudden turn iu the course of political affairs as the result of a natural reaction against a party so long iu office, or whether we attribute it to the splitting of the Liberal vote, or the lack of preliminary organisation, or the emergence of the Labour Party, as a decisive factor in the political struggle, the fact remains that Sir Joseph Ward can no longer count upon the support of a majority ol the members of the House of Repiesentatives ' The Dunedin livening Star states that the tight thing will be to call Parliament together iu January. The only condition that could warrant postponement to the middle of the year would be a dear assurance on the part of a majority of the members that they would be prepared to support the Government on a waut-of-confi-dence motion. Such assurance is hardly likely to be forthcoming. The Star goes on to say that the signal victory of the Miu’.ster lor Railways, taken in conjunction with some other indications ol public feeling, points to the likelihood that at no very distant date he may realise the honourable ambition to which he recently alluded. Sir Joseph Ward’s unmistakable loss of popularity, the defeat ol the Hou. G. Fowlds, aud Sir John Findlay’s relegation to private liie will certainly not be a hindrance to Mr Millar's advance.