WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 July 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

I AN INOPPORTUNE MOVE. I MR. McCOOMBS AGAIN. I __ " - (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, July 13. The strangely perverted kind of egotism which possesses the member for Lyttelton has agJln asserted itself at a singularly inopportune moment. Just as the more progressive members of the old Liberal Party, reinforced by a number of restless spirits from the other side of politics, were framing an amendment to the Adddress-in-Reply based on broad democratic principles, Mr .McCoombs has rushed in with a challenge to the Government on its one unassailable feature of its defence policy. Had he wished to fortify Sir James Allen and his colleagues against the attack of the other conspirators he scarcely could have served them, better. Th'ere are plenty of people complaining of the administration of the Defence Department, of its extravagance, waste, inefficiency and the rest but there is only an individual here and there finding fault with the determination of the Minister to discharge to the full the Dominion's obligation to the Empire. Yet this is the issue on which Mr. McCoombs has chosen to throw down the gage of battle to the National Cabinet. Of course, this little demonstration will be ignored by the public just as it is being ignored by the Government, and the pity of it all is that a man of his ability should be wasting his talents on such futile displays. THE MAN SUPPLY. It must not be assumed, however, that Mr. McCoombs is the only member of Parliament who looks with disfavour upon the continual drafts upon the man supply of the country. Even in the Legislative Council, where one does not look for any departure from the accepted creeds and traditions there are occasional murmurings against the exacting demands of Imperialism. The Hon. J. D. Ormond, wha took his seat in the Council for the first time this session yesterday seized the earliest opportunity to express his dissent from the policy of the Government. He thought New Zealand should

not keep up its present large reinforcements and he predicted there would be an expression of opinion in the country entirely averse to the administration of the Defenee. In the House there are a score of men talking in the same strain and perhaps half as many again leaving their thoughts unspoken. But the Minister of Defenee will not budge one jot from his original programme and apparently he has the full support of his colleagues in his determination. The statement he made in the House on Tuesday night, though it supplied Mr. McCoombs with most, of the material for his attack, was really a very stirring appeal to the patriotism of the country and it was made to neither deaf nor unappreciative ears.

SMOULDERING DISCONTENT. If there should be a serious attack upon the Government before the conclusion of the debate on the Address-in-Eeply it will be based not upon Sir James Allen's refusal to listen to the little New Zealanders, as he would call them, who would have him stay his hand in regard to the dispatch of Reinforcements, but upon a score of minor delinquencies which have grown into grave crimes as the age of the Ministry has progressed. First, of all there is the administration of the Defence Department, which in some respects has been deplorably slack and ineffective. Probably the Minister is less to blame for what has happened than are his responsible officers, but he has shouldered the full responsibility for the defects and the failures aud will be judged accordingly. Then there is the timidity of the Government in. regard to the cost of living. It may have been impossible for Ministers to keep prices down, but it is urged to their disadvantage they have made no sustained effort to do so. In this connection it is pointed out that the Prime Minister by extracting the last farthing from the Imperial authorities for meat and butter aud cheese has added substantially to the prices of those commodities in New Zealand. These are the domestic affairs which make and unmake Government much more 'frequently than do big questions of for~ eign policy. t