THE FUSION QUESTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2910, 16 July 1925, Page 2

THE FUSION QUESTION.

A tlnoil of light was cast on the fusion in gutialions between the Reform and Libera!•Labour Parties on Tuesday (says the Dominion). Revelations weie anticipated, and il wa- to•!cd when the House of Re-pre.-eiilativi-s met that hoili the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Oppiedlinn had before them bulky piles of correspondence. Nearly an hour was -pent, however, in the transaction of routine business, and in a first-reading debate on a Bill introduced by a Labour member before the Prime Minister rnsr to make his anticipated stuleincut. In this he reviewed the in-ler-parly discussions, and read the whole of the correspondence which has passed between Mr Wilford and himself on the subject of fusion. Interest emit fed, of cnui'sc, mi the letters exchanged by the parly leaders during the past two weeks. Mr ('nates made il quite clear that although negotiations had been broken off by the Liberal-Labour Parly. he was himself ready to discuss the fusion question in further detail, and intended in any case to seek a mandate from the electors its leader.'of a National Parly. Alt' Milford afterwards reviewed and criticised the Prime Minister'statement.

Fur the first time this session, the House uf Representatives spent an aflcriiomi yesterday in debating Ilie replies of Ministers to questions. When the Address-ill-Reply deli,•)te was resumed in the evening, Mr Savage, mi behalf of the Labour Parly, at once moved another noconfidence amendment —the fourth id I In 1 debate and fifth of the session. After a debate which, stive for a brief speech by Sir James Parr, was carried on chiefly by Labour members, the amendment was defeated on a division by 38 Vules to 33.