POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 March 1912, Page 8

POLITICAL.

, AFTER THE BATTLE. e (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) s _ Wellington, Last Night. e Friday and Saturday were uneventful days, being the days after the battle. ;> Thursday afternoon the only hope of B J the Opposition was to carry a snatch . division b,efore half-past five, but the f whips of the Government were very s ) alert, and every member of the party . was ready to repel the assault. The y Opposition had slight hopes of getting 3 one of the new men back, for the iin- - pulsive Mr. Hindmarsh had expressed i himself in a manner calculated to make - one believe that he approved of thefproe posal to force on the reconstruction be- :. fore the adjournment, but of this he f had repented before 5.30. 1 The rest of .the debate, until two in the morning, was devoted by the Oppoi sition to what may be termed a review t of all their colts, and it was the theme - of general admiration that these gal--5 \ loped uncommonly well. They talked > with spirit, with self-possession, and ' with a mastery seldom seen in neophytes. Ir> this respect 'there is a change for the better in the tome of Parliament. " v A very old member said the other day that the new electoral conditions have ". developed a fluency of speaking. Flu- » ency has now become indispensable, and the electors turn down every man who 1 -has not a decent flow of words. The " ' result is, that better speaking talent is ( getting into the House. Be this as it may, certain it is that , the colts of the Opposition made a very good showing on Thursday evening.' These and some of the older members addressed • themselves with great force | to the Labor members to make amends for their breach of privilege by coming back to the true fold, so far at all events as to insist on the production of *he new Government'before tie They made no impression, as was w> ■ ;ndcrstood long before the attempt w.' given up. It was for that reason a surprise that the Opposition forced a division on the amendment. Had they taken the voiees they would have gone away with the prestige of having reached a casting vote, whereas now they have retired; in a minority of two. After the verdict there was no cheering, and members dispersed rather wearily.' Of course the winning side spent some'time in* the lobbies congratulating each other. The next) day they had a caucus, which merely, after giving Sir Joseph Ward a handsome "send-off," agreed to meet within a fortnight for the formation of a new Government. Nothing, as the debates have shown in public, will induce Sir Joseph to reconsider his determination to resign, and it is certain that he will remain at his post as a private member, giving his support to .the administration and his sharpest attention to the other side. His statement of intention to proceed against two persons is much discussed in the lobbies, but no one seems to care to venture on any enterprise of speculation. The precincts are now nearly empty, and the session of February-March, 1912, is a thing of the past. The feelings on' both sides are—jubilation on the one that the old alliance between Labor and Liberalism is once more cemented, and ou the other of disappointment that the victory was missed. For this disappoint- i ment the nearness of the finish does not ' prove a consolation. There is, I regret < to see, a disposition to blame the leader. . The probability is that nothing the leader did had any influence for evil, i The opinion is probably correct that the intemperate outburst of the Dominion during the tram strike here alarmed the labor unions into bringing pressure on, the Labor members to stand by the Government.