POLITICAL SITUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1915, Page 5

POLITICAL SITUATION.

THAT CASTING VOTE. By Telegraph.—Special to Daily News. Wellington, Last Night. Probably with a very natural desire to save the face of their party, some of the local Reformers are still maintaining that Mr. Massey will have a casting vote in the National Cabinet, and that his ultimate control of legislation will be just us ell'ecti've as lit would have have been if all h.j s new colleagues hud 'been of his own party color. The iteration of this story is of consequence onty because it puts Sir Joseph Ward and his supporters in a wrong light, ami is calculated to provoke a revival of dissensions between the partiefi'. It's authors cannot really believe that the leader of the recent Opposition accepted office merely for the purpose of 'being silenced and overridden iby his political opponents. What would happen to the Liberal Ministers if they were at the mercy of Mr. Masscy's en/king votemay be easily imagined. Sir Joseph Ward as Minister of Finance, for instance, might propose to make the highest graduation in the income tax live shillings in the pound, as the Commonwealth Government has done, while Mr. iMassey might insist upon it remaining at the present maximum of one dulling and i'ourpeuce. Jn this case, the only alternative to Sir Joseph Ward's acceptance of tho Prime Minister's veto, and the renunciation of his own policy, would bo Jus resignation and that, ijl course, would mean the collapse of the whole Cabinet by the defection of the rest of tho Liberal Ministers. THK PRIML' MINISTER'S PRKROIUTTVE.

Such a pass as this is not an act likely to be reached, thanks to the good sense that already has been displayed on Loth sides, but .Mr. Massey, as Prime Minister, does enjoy one prerogative which, in the last resort, might save ■him and his Keform colleagues from being made parties to any legislation of which they strongly disapproved, .lie CQiild resign, and his resignation would involve the resignation of the whole Cabinet. .Any other -Minister could resign without affecting the position of his colleagues, and the constitutional, right to lill his place would fall to .Mr. -Massey. However, 'neither of these contingencies need to Ire feared by people who are hoping to see the National Cabinet directing the business of the country till the conclusion of the war. There will be pronounced dill'ercuices uf opinion, and, possibly, .some strenuous arguments in the Cabinet room, but the new -Ministers have entered upon their duties in a spirit of compromise and conciliation, and though they may incur all the censure that usually falls to the authors of tax measure, they will not lightly abandon the attempt to cany the country through this great national crisis without the embarrassment of party warfare. NATIONAL FCONOUY.

Tin!' Pool, which rarely misses an opportunity to quote tilt' "Jlomul Table'' with warm approval, this eyenin!« commends iiu article in the journal, on national economy, to the particular attention of "the new (lovernmcnt and tile new .Minister of l''inanee." Just how it expects Sir Joseph Ward io induce New Zealaudiin to banish superfluous dishes fram their tables, and lira on bread and potatoes, is not clear, but it's wild protest ajjainst extravagance in general, and extrava.ara.uce in giving in particular, is very timely, so far as Wellington at any rate is concerned. "Our people," it says, "have been liberal in their gifts to particular fumds, but many of the methods employed have been the reverse of economical, and except in special cases of necessity the war has done very little to check extravagance, yet economy is needed, at least as much a.s liberality, if we are to weather this war without disaster." AU this,is very'true, and "with tho stopping -of, promiscuous raffles to,its credit, the Government ought to bo encouraged to further efforts in the sains direction..