THE COMING SESSION

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 26 June 1917, Page 6

THE COMING SESSION

A TROUBLED SITUATION.

WANT OF HARMONY IN THE CABINET.

GENERAL ELECTION MAY TAKE PLACE THIS YEAR.

(N.Z. Times.)

The prediction is being made from several quarters that the session of Parliament commencing next week will be a strenuous if not a stormy one. On this point, we have had Ministerial assurances to the contrary. We have been told that the session will be short that it will be confined to matters arising out of the war, and that there will be little to do beyond providing for matters of finance and arranging the taxation for the coming twelve months, We are afraid the indications do not bear out this promise. In the first instance, there is more than a probability that the first appearance of trouble will come from within the Cabinet. When the National Government was formed, the chief argument employed in its favour was that it would establish party unity and remove all grounds of discord. The harmony that was expected to accrue from the fusion is said to exist anywhere except in the Cabinet. The trouble made its appearance strongly and significantly before the end of tbe last session, and it was notorious when Sir Joseph Ward was leaving for the Old Country that two of his Ministers, Hon. G. W. Russell and Hon. J. A. Hanan, studiously refrained from going to the steamer to take leave at him. Since then, the breach has widened rather than diminished. It is understood that when the late Hon R. McNab died, Mr. Russell cabled to Sir Joseph Ward conveying the iicavs, and asking as senior Minister, for instructions in the emergency. The story goes that Mr. Russell received no reply to that wire, On the other hand, Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald Avas the recipient of a message from Sir oJseph asking him to do the best he could for the party under the circumstances that had arisen. This gave umbruge to Mr. Russell and it will be remembered that on the occasion of the Hawke's Bay election a controversy arose whether Mr. Russell or Mr MacDonald was the acting leader of the Liberal party. With the return of Sir Joseph Ward it i~ rpprehended that a position already strained will become intolerable and that certain changes in the Cabinet will become the consequence of the situation. We are told that the situation has not been improved by the pronouncement made by the Hon. G. W. Russell concerning the absorption of the Union Steam Ship Company and the P. and

0., and that however, his sentiments may have appealed to public opinion, they have aroused resentment in the minds of some, members of the Cabinet. The development of the situation in the National Cabinet, which was formed in the interests of national unity and party harmony, will be awaited with some interest. In the meantime, there is something more than a mer& probability that a general election majyi be one outcome of the situation, and} may take place before the end of the.; year, and that steps towards this en& in the direction of defining the new electoral boundaries have already been taken.