WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3421, 27 February 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE CABINET. ---—-'. APPOINTMENTS STILL UNMADE. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 25. Mr Massey, who is leaving for Auckland tonight to be entertained there by some of his personal and political friends, is still unable to give any information in regard to the reinforcement of the Cabinet. The delay in making an announcement on the subject is provoking a good deal of comment, and doubtless taxing the patience of the various aspirants ror office; but it must be admitted the Prime Minister is keeping the administrative machine running surprisingly well with his much reduced team of colleagues. The arrangement in-evita-bly places a large amount of additional work and responsibility upori the.shoulders of the permanent heads of departments, but happily the civil service‘ system, with all its defects‘, seems to provide reliable and capable men at the top of the tree. Were it otherwise Mr Massey would have found very grave difficulty in carrying on under the enormous burden he has taken upon himself. MORE SPECULATIONS. _ If the Prime Minister has made up reinforced Cabinet. he had kept his reinforced Cabinet he had kept his decision very closely to himself. The matter was mentioned at the recent caucus of the Reform Party, but was not discussed in any detail and Mr Massey was left with an entirely free hand. At the time it was thought he might have it in his mind to approach certain members of the Liberal Party and certain unoflicial Labourites with a view to their inclusion in the Ministry, but now anything of this sort seems highly improbable. The scheme would be as impracticable frmn the Liberal and Labour points of view as it would be from the Reform point of view. However desirous the Reformers may have !been for a combination of the‘ “best bra-ins,” irrespective of party, before the election, they see now that no such compromise can be effected.

THE HOUSING PROBLEM. Home seekers in Wellington are no longer complaining of the rents they are asked to pay. Their more pressing trouble is that they cannot rent houses at any figure. House owners who do not require the accommodation for themselves all are sellers and appear to have no difficul-ty in commanding boom prices for their properties. In these circumsfzances anxious inquiries are being made about the Governmentfs housing scheme and yesterday Mr Massey gave some, information concerning the progress. it had made. The figures are not very impressive. The applications received from local bodies under the legisla-_ tion of last session amounted to £405,000, but the heaviestrof. them were from the big centres, the Christchurch City ‘ Council, for instance, asking for £200,000. Applicati6'ris» of that magnitude had to !be “turned down,” but eleven’applications, varying from £4OO to £IO,OOO and amounting to £75,000 altogether, have been entertained. and these, it is understood. represent the class of business to which the scheme will ‘orconfined. -

S.ECTARI.\NISM IN PO'Ll,TlCf\’. _ Sir Joseph Ward's speech at Winton yesterday is fully reported in the local papers ,and though it discloses nothing new concerning the "tactics of the P.P.A. during the election campaign it has evo_ked renewed expressions of regret that sectarianism should have been introduced into the politics of the country, particula.rl,V at. :2. time when a united effort is required from the whole cominunity in the work of reconstruction. There are many people here, however, who re~ fuse to believe that the activities of the P.P.O were an important factor in the polling outside Sir Joseph’s own constituency. They attribute the defeat of the Liberal Party to the dis‘sensions among the progressive forces and to the failure of Sir Joseph and his colleagues to make it clear tlrat while they denounced the extremists as whole-heartedly as their opponents did. they sympathised with the aspirations of ‘.\lodel*ate Labour.