THE POLITICAL SITUATION.
REFORM RETAIN RICCARTON AIND waitemata. Retention by the Government of the Riecarton and Wiaitemata seats was the main incident in the political situation yesterday, the official counts in those electorates having converted Mr, H. S. S. Kyle’s lead of two into a majority of 45, and Mr. A. Harris’s) lead of 276 into a majority of 315. In most constituencies the official counts commenced yesterday, and as the others will start to-day, the strength of the parties should he known byjThursday at the latest.
CABINET MEETING. A meeting of Cabinet was held yesterday, but the proceedings were confined to ti’ansaction of routine •business. It was reported subsequently that the gathering had no political significance. The Minister of Labour (Hon. G. J. Anderson) will return to Wellington today from an extensive health-re-cruiting trip abroad. His constituency, Mataura, is one of the seats still in jeopardy. “WILL PLAY THE GAME.” Says to-day’s Dominion: — “The Prime Minister adheres to his original attitude of not announcing the intentions of the Government until the final returns have been received. In reply to a question, he repeated that once the situation had been determined his future course of action would not be delayed. ‘They will not be able to say we have not played the game,’ he added. “The general impression in poli-< tical circles now* is that Mr. Coates will not resign iirimediately, but that he will call Parliament together at an early date to test the strength of the parties in the House. Sir Joseph Ward will then have the opportunity of moving his no-confi-dence amendment, which, with the assistance of the Labour-Socialists, would no doubt be carried. Mr. Coates would then tender his resignation and that of his Ministry, and recommend His Excellency the Governor-General to send for Sir Joseph Ward, as the leader of the next strongest party. The United leader would" be able to form a Ministry, and it might happen that the Reform Opposition, in accordance with their declared intention of placing the interests of the country first, would allow’ the United Party to remain in office to enable them to redeem the pledges they have made to the country. It is idle, however, to speculate until the final results from all the electorates have come to hand.” A LITTLE TOO PREVIOUS. “Since Sir Joseph Wiard seems to have made up his mind, that he is Prime Minister” (remarks the Christchurch “Press”), “and has apparently gone to Wellington to impress this fact upon the Gov-ernor-General, one feels that one ought to apologise for offering him and his party even a w’ord of counsel. Yet this counsel we do give them —that they ought to mediate upon the position and, above all, await the final official results of the voting. At the present moment it is not possible to say whether the United Party or the Reform Party will have the larger number of representatives in the House. They are in this respect nearly equal, although the popular vote for the Government obviously exceeds the popular vote for the United Party. The United Party will be at best a party with a majority of 50 members against it in a House of 80, and with a popular vote less than that given to the Government. It has for many years cried out against the iniquity of a party’s holding office which has not had a popular as well as a Parliamentary majority over the other parties combined. This has not prevented it from claiming the right now to govern, although there is against it a 63 per cent, majority in Parliament and a 70 per cent, majority in the country! These facts will ip •time, no doubt, sink into the heads of the Excited Party.” “DELIVER THE GOODS!” Auckland, Nov. 19. The “New Zealand Herald,” in the course of a long editorial on the political situation, says: “There need not be too much said about Mr. Coates being in office while in a minority. Each of the other parties is in a minority, too, though that does not mean that Mr. Coates can properly stay in office until next June as if nothing had happened. It has been said in comment by the opponents of Mr. Coates and his party, first, that Sir Joseph Ward might not care to form a Cabinet unless assured of a majority, and, second, that Mr. Coates dare not force a dissolution lest his party be annihilated. Both sound like the statements of people whistling to keep their courage up. “If Sir Joseph Ward refuses the call, he passes the opportunity to somebody else, who would also be in a minority, a thing he is not likely to; do. In the alternative Mr. Coates will, as has already been said, be in a far stronger position of 'being able virtually to deny a dissolution if he refrains from attempting to defeat whatever Government is in power, and refuses to allow it to be defeated. Then certain promises given during the election campaign will have to be put into execution —if possible—or stand as confessed shams. For Sir Joseph Ward to refuse to form
a Cabinet or for a dissolution to be forced before anything had been attempted by anybody would be an easy way out for those who have promised the country far more than they can possibly perform. “The course which duty and expediency combine to lay down for Mr. Coates is to refrain from moving no-confidence motions, to refuse support to any that may be moved, tot refrain from obstruction, but to exercise to the full his right of criticism, to deprive the Government succeeding him of any excuse for evading the promises by pleading malignant opposition from the other side, to let the country see what progress is made by. those who accused him of failure and professed to have the secret of success in their possession. If he does this, he will play a perfectly legitimate and thoroughly justifiable role in the present situation. He should give the people a lead in insisting that there shall be no watel’ing down of election professions. Progress in country and city, the rapid development of the land, the immediate revival of prosperity, have all been promised. Let him, taking no responsibility for the methods, demand that they be produced. If he does this the immediate future will be worth watching.”
SIR JOSEPH WARD’S VIEWS. APOLOGY TO CORRESPONDENTS. Wellington, Nov. 17. Sir Joseph Ward returned from the south to-day, being welcomed on arrival by a number of political friends and supporters, and left shortly afterwards for his residence at Heretaunga. In a statement of the “Post,” he said that he expected to hear, as soon as the final results were known on Wednesday morning or Thursday next, that the Reform Government had tendered its resignation. That was of course, a matter under the control of the Prime Minister, “but with my knowledge of what is usual in a politieaj crisis such as this,” said Sir Joseph Ward, “the position seems to me to be clear.
“It is obvious that the Government is in a minority in respect to elected members, and that it cannot expect His Excellency to accept their advice in the circumstances. Personally, I am in no way attempting to interfere, since it is not for me to do so, but I am speaking on the basis of what people know from end to end of the country, namely, that the Government is in a minority as the result of the decision of the people, and no country can be governed by a minority. What the future outcome of the situation may be is, of course, in the lap of the gods.’ Sir Joseph Ward said that during the past few weeks, and especially since the result of the election, he had received an enormous amount of correspondence by letter and telegram. So great had been its volume that he had not been able to deal with it. He hoped, however, soon to arrange for assistance to enable him to reply to those who had so kindly sent their congratulations. He estimated that it would take several weeks to overtake the arrears and in the meantime he asked correspondents to excuse him for the unavoidable delav.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3873, 20 November 1928, Page 3
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1,385THE POLITICAL SITUATION. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3873, 20 November 1928, Page 3
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