WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 23 June 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE MEMBER FOR HAWKE'S BAY. HIS PLACE IN POLITICS. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 22. It is obvious enough now that the new member for Hawke's Bay is not going to be dragged at the chariot wheels of the National Government. When he consented at the urgent request of the Liberal members of the Cabinet to conest the seat rendered vacant bf the death of Dr. McNab, it was naturally assumed by people who did not know him very well that a portfolio was among the inducements drawing him back to public life. His intimate friends were under no such delusion. They were well aware that his inclination lay in quite another direction. That he is determined to be free from the trammels of party he made perfectly clear during his election campaign and that he intends to play the part of a candid friend 'o the National Government he made equally plain wnen addressing a section of his constituents the other day. ASSERTION OF INDEPENDENCE. Whether or not Sir John Findlay would have been an acceptable colleague to the Reform members of the Cabinet is a question it would be idle to discuss in view of recent events. The interview which the AttorneyGeneral gave to the newspapers criticising Sir John's action in impugning the War Regulations in his professional capacity dissipated all possibility of their feelings on the subject being put to the test. It still would be interesting, however, to learn how some of the Liberal members would regard his appearance on the Treasury benches. Presumably he was invited to second the motion for the Address-in-Reply in pursuance of the custom which prescribes that newlyelected members shall be pushed into prominence on such occasions; but a curious public has not been permitted to know the nature of his reply. THE DEMOCRATIC NOTE. X \ ', The particular business w'lich took the Hastings .deputation to Sir John is at the moment of less consequence than the emphatic reiteration of his democratic principles. He is not generally supposed to be a rabid opponent of the "trade" nor an ardent friend of the prohibitionists. What views he has on the liquor question, merely as a social problem, are his own and have not been paraded before the public. But arguing from the purely democratic standpoint he maintains that the voice of the people ought to prevail here as it ought to .prevail everywhere else. Holding this view he is perhaps a little illogical in whittling down the . majority required to obtain no-license, to 55 per bent, and then saying the process shall go no further. But other goM -Democrats are beginning to realise that without the stability obtained "from a strong volume of public opinion no social reform can achieve the 'best results , THE FUTURE. But whatever his disposition towards the parties and their leaders or towards any political question may be there is not the slightest ground for the assumption that Sir John is going to inaugurate a militant movement against the National Government. On this point he has given an emphatic pledge which he may be trusted to respect. But both by precept and example he probably will inspire the rank and file of the House of Representatives with a little more courage and enterprise and independence than they have displayed since they offered up their party differences on the-high altar of national patriotism. Here he may do a very real and important service to the State. The friends of both parties and the friends of no party at all are beginning to recognise that without free and honest criticism legislation and administration are apt to deteriorate. It is from this peril that Sir John may assist in saving the saving the country.