A “FUSION” GOVERNMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 90, 17 August 1915, Page 7

A “FUSION” GOVERNMENT.

ij I POSITION Or TH!• LABOR PARTY 1 Dunedin, August 15. I Speaking at a social on Saturday | I night, the Hon. J. 1. Paul, AI.L.C., ] I said he had been asked what was to I : become of the Liberal party. He bej ; ticved the parties, Reform and Liberj, | al, w ould never exist again as they | | did on August 4th last. It was not a j | National Government in office to-day. j |ll was a fusion of two parties, bei cause there wore three parties in the I’ House. Two of the parti.es had decided to unite. !l would have been | a National Government if- it had been composed ol members of every party j in (fie House. .It was composed of j 'members of two parties, and was 1 therefore fusion, which, without any | stretch of imagination, might easily end in conlnsiom. j Tiie Lai. our parly's position in con- • nod ion wit h t ins fusion, said Mr Paul, j was put excellently in the letter ol its ‘ chairman (Mr A. H. Hindrnarsh) to ! the Liberal leader u lien ho said: “Jhc I extent to which the Labor party is I prepared 1.0 'support or oppose the' j Government, depends upon the m«a- ---\ sums brought forward and its admiuI tration.” r Jlie Labor Party could | tao no other position. It was a party I 'that bowed to no other party in its i patriotism and in its desire to sec the 1 war brought to a successful conclusion. but it had a responsibility to the people, and that responsibility it would I fulfil. The Labor Party must enunci- ' take no other position. It was a ; arty and if il had become part of the Puffin Government, it would have had to bury those principles and agree to i anything the Fusion Government de--1 cidod to bring in. It was possible for • tile Fusion Government to make mistakes. it might not levy the war tax on the shoulders that ought to bear it, and if so, it was the duty of the 'Labor Party to place that fact before the country. .Mr A. Walker, ALP., asked what effective force would one Labor representative have in a Government of twelve, and composed of men \ hose interests were largely opposed to those of the Labor Party? He hoped the taxation proposals in New Zealand would be on the lines of those brought down last week in Australia.