WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3483, 11 May 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE DEPARTED GUEST.

PLEASANT MEMORIES. E (special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, May 10. Wellington is returning *0 W°l‘k to’ day after having? devoted much the better part of a week to loyal h0li«l:1:.'making in honour of the Prince of Wales. The city wears a somewhat drab appearance, wiah its brave show of bunting and scenery well advanced in the scar and yellow, and its streets and enclosures still littered with the debris of feasting and festivity, but its people carry about with them pleasand recollections of their departed guestand a new conception of the part he plays in the solidarity of the Empire. The visit of the prince was much less formal than that of his father nineteen years a,go——in the days before the Empire found itself—and it has left behind a widespread feeling of personal attachment to the Throne which was scarcely known by the native-born New Zealanders before, LABOUR AND LOYALTY.

One of the minor outcomes of the Prince’s visit is a challenge appearing in the local papers to-day from Mr John Fox, one of the founders of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, and one of its most sturdy pillars to—day, to Mr Peter Fraser, the member for Wellington Central, to resign his seat in Parliament and re-contest; it with the challenger. Mr Fraser, holding the perverted View a small minority of the Labour Party does in regard to the position the Crown occupies in the Constitut.ion,,declined to sign the address of welcome presented-to the Prince by the City Council, and Mr Fox wishes to contest his seat with him on this question. Mr Fraser is scarcely likely to accept the challenge, and the Prince would be the last person to wish him to do so, but the incident fairly represents the temper of the community. A vast majority of the member’s constituents are utterly out of sympathy with his attitude.

. THE MINISTRY. Mr Massey’s- la'st excuse for delaying the completion of the ‘Cabinet reconstruction = was -extinguished by. the defeat of the Hon. J. B. Hine at the Stratford V election. Even the Prime Minister’s -own personal and political friends are becoming more than a little impatient. of the system of “one-man goVerlinle'nt” which the Reform leader was wont to denounce so fervently in the days of I\lr Seddon, and which he has maintained himself since the gérieral election. in December. ‘They find no fault with his loyalty to Mr Hine, nor with a seat in the Cabinet having been kept vacant for that gentleman, but they object very §t'rongly to the administrative drift that has been going on during ‘the last five or six months, and that is threatening to land. the country into even more serious trouble than the railway strike, which, they say, is directly traceable to Mr -.\lassey’s inability to give adequate attention to all the duties he has taken upon himself. PUBLIC FINANCE. One of the troubles facing ‘the Government ‘is the perennial trouble of finance. The public accounts for the financial year ended March 31 last, now some two weeks overdue, have not yet been presented, and their absence ;n_a'tur-ally is giving rise to a good deal ‘gf criticism and speéulation. Mr Masffiey holds the portfolio of Finance him-self-—burdell enough for any one man ——and his long experience in Parliament and his close acquaintance with the affairs of the country well qualify him for the responsibility. But no one seeing the Prime Minister at work in these times can imagine him having sufficient leisure to master all the pressing problems that beset the Treasury at the present"momeni. The accmnulated war _,»'Blll‘pldSeS' have been spent, the ordinary surplus has been anticipated, and additional taxation is inevitable. Never has a strong Cabinet been more urgently needed.