WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 4 August 1916, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

(Special Correspondent) WELLINGTON, August 2. It appears that the party truce is not to save Pahiatua from the throes of a contested election in filling the seat in Parliament rendered vacant by the death of Mr. Escott. Of course, the compact between the Party leaders not to invade one another's territory during the course of the war will prevent the Liberals entering the field, but Mr R. B. Ross, who held the sear from 1905 to 1911 and was defeated by Mr Escott in the latter year by only ISB votes in a poll of 6,323, has announced his intention to stand as an Independent, and it i s quite on the cards that the Labour Party, for edu- . cative purposes, as the leaders would put it, will nominate a candidate. The Reformers have lost no time in bringing forward their champion, a Mr. G. IT. Smith, who contested the seat in 1899 and was beaten by Mr. J. O’-

Meara, who had held it in the Liberal interests in the previous Parliament and retained it till hi s death in 1904. The promptness with which Mr Smltn was “unanimously selected” under the stsije management of the principal party whip, suggests indeed that the Reform organisation has suffered notn ing from the temporary suspension of its aggressive activities. MINISTERS AND PARTIES. It is assumed hare that Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward will be required to observe the same secrecy in making final arrangements for their xrip Home as Mr Hughes, the Commonwealth Prime Minister, was when he started out on a similar mission. Neither the

date of their departure nor the route they will take will be announced, and days may elapse before the mere people know they are actually out of the country. That they really are going, however, some time before the end of the year may be judged from the fact that caucuses of the parties have been held lately at which the question of leadership has been discussed. At the Liberal caucus yesterday Sir Joseph Ward, in reply to a blunt enquiry on the subject, emphatically denied the rumour that he wa s contemplating taking up his permanent residence in London, and his assurance of his cetermination to remain with the Liberal Party in New Zealand as long as he could serve it was received with verycordial applause. It is understood that a similar statement has been drawn from Mr Massey by his supporters, and that the stories of hijgii Imperial distinctions to be conferred upon the two travellers have been entirely discrerited.

DAYLIGHT SAVING

It is not often that the Prime Minister i s seriously perturbed by anything that happens in the House —or at any rate, not often that he betrays any serious annoyance—but on Monday he was very obviously vexed by Mr Sidey’s success in getting his daylight savin,gi clause inserted in the War Regulations Bill. He declared it was “grossly unfair” of the member for Dunedin South to bring down “ a debatable and contentious” amendment to the measure when the Government was trying to “close up the session.” The division wa s a very close one. and largely on party lines, though the Liberal Ministers who had supported Mr Sidey’s scheme before they joined the National Cabinet, on this occasion voted with their Reform colleagues. There was a sprinkling of Reformers among the majority, and it is rumoured one or two of these gentlemen have been taken rather seriously to task by their leader, but, of course, the Minister has no reason to be really disturbed. He always has his faithful councillors between him and the vagar ie s of any “faddist” in the House, and Mr Sidey’s amendment is not at all likely to survive the passage of the Bill through" another place.”

THE HIGH OOMMSISIONER

According to tire Hon. A. T. McGinnity, tliero is much disappointment among people interested in the matter at the appointment of the High Commissioner to the Dardanelles Commission. The new Councillor wants to know if the appointment as made with the consent and approval of the Government, and if the correspondence dealing with the subject will be laid on the table of the Council. He had questions to this effect on the Order Paper yesterday, and suported them with quite a lengthy speech before the Hon. J. T. Paul intervened with a point of order, and Sir Francis Bell explained that just then the Government could not give publicity to its communications with the Imperial authorities. Mr McGinnity's point seemed to be that the Prime Minister or the Minister of Finance, or both of them, should have been appointed to the Commission, not ‘‘a subordinate officer of the Crown,” but by som c means or another, and probably without any such intent he gave many people the impression he was "flinging off"’ at Sir Thomas Mackenzie in a partisan spirit. The general opinion is that Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward ■will find plenty to do during the visit to London without waiting on the Dardanelles Commis-

sion for weeks on end.