WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3585, 22 September 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

4 , FRIDAY’S DIVISION, ITS SIGNIFICANCE. . (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 20. The significance of the division in the House on Friday afternoon did not lie in he fact that the Government was sa;d from defeat only by the casting vote of the Chairman of Committee, but in the evidence it provided of some sort of rapprochxncnt between the Liberals and the Official Labour Party. During the election campaign and the, early days of the session Mr. Holland and his friends seemed to stand even further apart from the Liberals ‘than they did from the Reformers; indeed they made no secret of their belief that their own way to the Treasury Benches lay across the dead and bujried' body of Libera ism. But since Mr. T. M. Milford assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party, the Social Democrats, as Mr. Haland and his friends still like to be called, have appeared distinctly less keen in the pursuit of their disintegrating tactics.

POSSIBILITIES IN THE FUTUEE. This is not to say that the Social Democrats are showing the slightest Inclination to surrender their partyidentity or that Mr. Milford is coquetting with the extremists foy their support. But the new members of the Official Labour Party have conceived a much broader idea of their .representative duties than any Mr. Holland has yet inculcated. They do not habitually talk of having been sent to Parliament by one section of the workers to protect 'them from the greed and arrogance of the rest of the community. The new leader of thd Liberal Party,. J on the other hand, is frankly sympathetic with the cause of Labour and recognises the justice of their claims, and very likely, as some of his critics are jeering, their growing strength in the constituencies. Of course no combination is going 10 displace the Government during the life of the present Parliament, but there appears to be a possibility' of many interesting party developments before the next general elec. ion. ELECTIVE UPPER HOUSE. The very large majority that supported the Hon. J. B. Gow’s motion urging the Government to save the members' of the Legislative Council from the ordeal of a popular election advanced no new argument for undoing the legislation of six years ago. Simply what was said in 1914 was said again with such emphasis as could be obtained from the conditions created by the war. One curious thing about the division is that threefourths of the councillors who voted 9 with Mr. Gow were members of the party which a litt’e while ago deemed the adoption of the elective system as the one thing necessary for the salvation of ’the Upper House. It is to the credit of Sir Francis Bell, the leader of the Council, however, that he stands firm to his principles and "will tolerate no tampering /with the existing -Ac;! so long as ho remains in office. WHAT NEXT? What will happen next in regard to the Legislative Council Act it is difficult to say. The Prime MinTT **■***s made no pro-nouncement on the subject, but it may' be presumed -the Government will remain loyal to its representative in the Upper House, if only to avoid the catastrophe of losing his services at the Cabinet I able. But there arc several amendments which ought to be made in the Act before it cones into operation and which Would meet with the approval of both Chambers if hey were approached with a desire to improve the measure and not with a determination to destroy it. These amendments would deal with the representation ot the Government in the Council, the system of counting the votes at an election and some minor matters, and none of them impair the underlying principle of the measure. The Government’s difficulty will be tS confine the improvement of ’the measure to this -scope.