WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 February 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE WAR CABINET.

MEETING OP PARLIAMENT

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Feb 6,

Of course the official announcement of the impending departure of Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward to attend the meeting of the Imperial War Cabinet had been anticipated in every material detail before it appeared In the newspapers yesterday morning. All that remained in doubt was the date on which the Ministers would leave the Dominion, and on this depended the date on which Parliment would be summoned to make the ne-

cessary arrangements for carrying on the business of the country during their absence. These dates are now indicated clearly enough for all practical purposes. Parliament will meet in the second week of April and the party leaders will be on their way Home before the end of the month. What they will have to do when they get there is not so easily deduced and probably the Prime Minister and his colleague have little more information on this point than has the average man in the street.

THE SHORT SESSION. Apparently Mr. Massey aim Sir Joseph Ward are counting upon getting through the short session which must precede their departure in ten or twelve days, at the most. Probably their expectation will be justified by the event. But it is unlikely members of the House will be quite so docile and compliant as they were under similar circumstances a year ago. Their constituents have grown more .restless and critical and a general election sceems nearer at hand. They will want to get into “Hansard” and into the newspapers with reassertions of their patriotism and independence and the rest of their popular virtues. In the end, however, Ministers are bound to have their own way. The pretty fiction which assigns to Parliament the control of its own proceedings, down to the duration of a session, is only a pretty fiction after all. The cold truth is that the Government of the day, by virtue of its majority, holds all such matters in the hollow of its hand.

WELLINGTON NORTH.

The final retirement of Sir John Denniston from the Supreme Court Bench and the resignation of the Hon. A. L. Hcrdman from the Wellington North seat in Parliament followed quickly upon the announcement concerning the representation of the Dominion in the Imperial War Cabinet. Everybody knows the connection between the three events and everybody will join In the congratulations that are being offered to Sir John and his successor—to the one on the completion of long years of faithful service to the State and to the other on the opportunity to establish a similar record. It would seem there is not to be the same unanimity in regard to the election of Mr. A. L. Herdman's successor. The Mayor, Mr. J. P. Luke, is the National Government’s nominee for the seat, but at present there are three other Richmonds in the field all bent upon trying conclusions with His Worship.

A DIVIDED PARTY. At the moment the way looks none too easy for either Mr. Luke or Mr. Massey. The selection of a candidate rested with the Prime Minister under the provision of the party truce and he offered the nomination to Mr. Luke mainly, as he now says, in recognition of his war work in his official capacity as Mayor. But a number of Reformers in Wellington North positively refuse to accept Mr. Luke as their candidate, alleging that he Is unstable in his adherence to their party, that he has little knowledge of general politics and that he has narrow views on the licensing question. It is safe to say the last objection Is not the least in the eyes of many of the dissatisfied electors. The Mayor Is a Prohibitionist and a Six O’clocker and during his occupancy of the Mayoral chair he has made little effort to disguise the faith that is within him.

grave possibilities. If the disgruntled Reformers should persist in their refusal to be reconciled to Mr. Luke’s candidature and bring out another aspirant for Parliamentary honours of their own colour the consequences might be very grave indeed. The constituency at the last general election was distinctly a Reform one, but notwithstanding this fact Mr Herdman did not have a very largo margin of votes over the total of the Liberal and Labour candidates that opposed him. if the Reform votes were divided between two candidates in the approaching contest and t 'o Liberal and Labour \c con■centratad on one candidate, the National Government’s nominee certainly would be defeated and most probably the Reform majority in the House

■would disappear. Mr. Massey has been understood to say that m the event ot this happening he would ash for a dissolution. What then would become ot the party truce and o the political unity by which the Dominion is assisting in winning the w a - •