POLITICAL TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1915, Page 5

POLITICAL TOPICS.

CONDITIONS AT TRENTHAM CAMP. COALITION REPORTED "OFF." (By Wire.—Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Last Night. Trgntham camp is the political topie of the hour. Even the coalition negotiations, which are still in progress, loom less large in the view of the members of the House of Representatives than the revelations made lately with regard to the condition of affairs at the camp. Every member has constituents who are keenly and personally interested in the welfare of the " boys" in khaki, and the best friends of the responsible Ministers cannot disguise from themselves the fact that there has been mismanagement. Members who have visited Trentham and interviewed the men are now applying an enormous amount of pressure to the Government, and reforms are being made at a most satisfactory pace, but the end has not been heard of the matter in the House, and, probably, there will be a warm discussion to-morrow, when the Prime Minister will move to set up the proposed ! Trentham Inquiry Committee. . Officially, the coalition negotiations are still in progress. The opinion commonly held in the lobbies of Parliament is that they are " off," and that the question remaining is.the nature of t'iie report possibly involving a compromise of some description that the party leaders will make to the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have conferred on one occalson only, and one would gather that no second meeting has yet been arranged. Sir Joseph Ward will report to a caucus of the Opposition to-morrow morning, and the decision then reached may lead to a further meeting of the leaders. Od the other hand, it may make further discussions unnecessary. Lobby gossip based on something more substantial than mere conjecture insists that the offer made by the Prime Minister to the Leader of the Opposition amounted to three seats in a Ministry of nine members, Mr. Massey retaining the right to select the men who were to accompany Joseph Ward into the Cabinet. " "Exact information on this point may never be available, but your correspondent 'has no 'hesitation at all in saying that all the. indications point definitely to the failure of the coalition negotiations. The outcome may be an arrangement that will associate Sir Joseph Ward find several Op-position members with the Cabinet in an informal war for war purposes, tho present ittinistrv retaining full control of State affairs and all executive responsibility. LABOR PARTY'S MOVE. Wellington, Last Night. The following official statement has been made for publication by the Parliamentarv Labor iParty:— "To earrv on its joint action witn the Liberals and for other purposes, and especiallv to preserve its complete identity, the" Labor Party has appointed^!! - . Hindmarsh as its chairman. Mr. Payne prefers to preserve his identity as an Independent Labor member."