WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 112, 13 May 1916, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

A BREEZY DAY. PLATONIC OPPOSITION. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, May 12. The introduction of Mr. Payne's batch* of bills on the first working day of the session gave the members of the National Cabinet a foretaste of the kind of criticism they may expect to''encounter when they are getting their own measures through the House. The member for Grey Lynn was aggressive enough to satisfy the most bellicose of his admirers, even the ladies of the Anti-German League, but he managed to N keep within the limits imposed by the standing orders and to avoid any serious disagreement wit hthe speaker. Nor did his criticism of the Government consist solely of a reiteration of the familiar stories of favours shown to persons of German birth and German extraction. His War Exigencies and Empire Preservation Bill, to take the most daring of his proposals, contains the kernel of a measure that might be of great public utility at the present juncture. There can be no profit in reviving the Zedlitz case or in further belabouring the Grierson case just noAV, unless it is desired to plunge Parliament into the turmoil which proceeded the "party truce," but some of the more pressing issues raised by Mr| Payne will have to be considered during the present session and dealt with in a broad, statesman-like The war must not be made an excuse for neglecting every domestic problem that is not intimately concerned with the provision of men.

I A STUDY OF TEMPERAMENTS. Th e mover and seconder of .the Ad-dress-in-Reply presented a striking contrast in temperament and method. Mr. Guthrie burdened his carefully prepared speech with the commonplace and the obvious, never rising far above the platitudes which obtrude themselves on such occasions and never forgetting the traditions cf his party. He dwelt on the progress and prosperity of the country, the imports and exports, the wool and the butter and all the other things that enter into statistics and returns; but he spared hardly a word to the great questions of the day except to imply that the achievements of the Defence Department had been made possible ..only by the happenings of three or four years ago. Mr. Forbes struck' a much higher note. While congratulating the National Government on what it had accomplished, he dared to remind it" that much remained for it to do. From beginning to end of his admirable speech there was no ■ suggestion of party or of the trivialities that may have passed for politics in the days before the war. He accepted compulsory military service frankly as a necessity of the hour. He wanted to see a complete measure brought down at once. He wanted to such fiasco as had occurred in the Home Parliament. "The people of New Zealand," he said, "are in a heroic mood and they are prepared for a heroic measure. And as with compulsion so with other urgent measures." The whole speech was characteristic of the robust man with the robust mind and the fervour of its delivery left the House, for the time at any rate, fully aroused to a sense of its opportunity*' and its duty. ' •

1 CRITICISM. Mr. T. M. Wilford, who, rightly or wrongly, is credited with aspirations towards the leadership of a new progressive party, not necessarily hostile to the' existing Liberal organisation, is likely to be one of the Government's most incisive critics during the present session. It has been said of the member for Hutt, as it used to be said of the late Mr. T. E. Taylor, that he ought to be permanent leader of the Opposition with all the emoluments and most of the privileges enjoyed by the head of the Ministry and there j can be no doubt he would fill such a position very capably if not always acceptably to the Government of the day. He lias the judicial temperament and the analytic mind which are required by parliamentary censors and it was somewhat in this role that he proceeded to lecture Mr Allen yesterday. "I fairly and squarel ybelieve," he said when supporting one of Mr. Payne's bills, 'that the greatest bar to recruiting to-day is the Minister of Defence. He does not intend to be. He is the hardest worker in this country. But he has no soul, no heart." Probably Mr. Wilford would have expressed himself mere diffidently had he been permanent leader of the Opi position, but he scarcely could have put the position more plainly. Mr. Allen's intentions are admirable, his industry is unceasing and the sum of his achievements 'highly creditable, but he lacks the sympathy and enthusiasm that inspire and stimulate men and he is altogether too careless of public opinion. Perhaps these are largely defects of manner,,.but there are times when defects of manner are hardly less culpable than faults of intention.