THE POLITICAL POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1915, Page 2

THE POLITICAL POSITION.

A MATTKIt OF COUKSR By Tulej>liipU.—Spotiu 1 to Daily >»'««'!. Wellington. Tuesday. People here have fully realised that the country would have been saved a vast amount of fuss and bother if Mr. Masscy had come down with a fair and reasonable mhemc lie first indicated his readiness to discuss the proposal for a National Cabinet. It was the Prime Minister's insistence upon a "prc-dominajK-e of power" for his own party that dragged on the negotiations for a whole month. But for this, and the anxiety of a large section of the Press to 'hack lum up, the business could have been settled in a couple of days. The Leader of the. Opposition was on firm ground from the first, and. there was not the least probability at any stage of the .proceedings of his handing his party over to the Reformers, bound hand and foot. The good sense of tiie Governor enabled Ilia Excellency to see the point at once, and a little vice-regal pressure opened Mr. Massey's eyes to the. desirability of avoiding a general e'ection under such circumstances as he would have faced the constituencies. ITS FIRST MEETING. The National Cabinet will hold its first meeting to-morrow, when the new members, who have been disporting themselves at the Grand National meeting and elsewhere, will return from the South and settle down to the serious business of administration. Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Myers have remained here during the short recess, and probably have got some start on their Liberal colleagues in t'he matter of rooms and secretaries. The Minister of Agriculture has been busy receiving deputations and picking up the threads of hie departments, wul.li will thicken out to reins later on. while the Minister of Munitions and Supplies, having carefully installed himself in Mr. Rhodes' rooms, has been finding out the scope and power of his 'brand-new portfolio. Of course, none of the new Ministers is entirely unacquainted with office, but it will take them all a week or two to grow accustomed to the novel condition. ELECTIVE EXECUTIVE. The orthodox advocates of the elective executive refuse to admit that the National Cabinet brings them any nearer their goal, but optimistic Reformers profess to see in the association of the laanli and the lion a distinct advance toward the extinction of the worst evils c-f party government. They argue that if Mr. Masscy and Sir Joseph Ward can manage to get along together in the same Ca.bfnet, the contention of their opponents that an elective executive would always be at sixes and sevens will fall to the ground, and that..not another argument will 'lie loft to them. In these eiivumsta.nces it is interesting to recall that almost every member of the 7iew Cabinet, at one time or another in his career, ha 9 supported the elective executive, and that the Prime Minister, in the days.when the treasury benches appeared hopelessly 'beyond his reach, was one of its most earnest supporters.