WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE NATIONAL CAUCUS. WHAT IT MEANS. (Special Correspondent). Wellington, Oct. 10. There is no reason to suppose that Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward had any ulterior purpose in inviting their supporters to a joint conference to consider tlie financial position of the Dominion in its relation to the agitation for more generous pensions arid allowances for the dependents of men being sent to the front. Quite a number of tlie members of the House, however, profess to see in the "National Caucus" a grave menace to the party system on which they believe the good government of the country depends. A National Cabinet they endure as a. disagreeable and unfortunate necessity arising out of the war, but a National Caucus they regard a? an insidious design to deprive the private member of what little initiative and responsibility remain to him after his leader has surrendered to expediency all the distinguishing principles that have shaped his party's career. THE BELITTLED PRIVATE MEMBER. The reproach is made from both sides of the House and is not directed in any particular or personal sense against either Mr. Massey or Sir Joseph Ward. "It means," a Reform member puts it, "that we are being converted into mcr

tities, without voice or vote in the direction of the country's affairs." "We are k'ing made ridiculous in the eyes of our constituents," a Liberal member, on the other hand, complains, "and they'll want to know what we have been doing all this time." This is the sort of thing that may be heard in the lobbies at all hours of the day. Nor are the protests against the National Cabinet's autocratic rule altogether unreasonable, from the private member's point of view. They certainly are not being exalted in the eyes of their constituents, and probably they will experience many a bad ten minutes when they come to seek re-elec-tion. THE INEVITABLE. But it should not be so difticuit for them, after all, to make the excuses. A National Caucus is the natural and inevitable corollary, sooner or later, of a National Cabinet. The country shouted aloud for a National Cabinet, and in due course got what it wanted and ought to have been happy. But apparently it did not realise that with all the best brains, presumably, associated in the Cabinet, and all the rest prohibited from discussing controversial politics, just what has happened was bound to occur. The Cabinet is supreme and but for appearances and constitutional usage it could do very well without the private members altogether. If there were any alternative to the present National Cabinet in another National Cabinet the position might be different. But there is no alternative, and private members and their constituents can only possess their souls in patience till the Germans acknowledge themselves beaten. THE NEXT [ELECTION. Many premature and entirely irresponsible predictions concerning the result of the next general election are bein~ made in this connection. The popular opinion seems to be that a new party is going to arise and that quite half the present members of the House will be sent about their. business with a fair sprinkling of Ministers among them. Perhaps the feeling of the electors, so far as they are feeling about the matter at all, inclines that way. Moreover, the history of bigger nations is being quoted to show that almost invariably it has been the fate of a Government that has conducted a great war to go out of office on the conclusion of peace. But unless some magnetic figure arises in the public life of this country before next December to inspire the electors with new ideals and new aspirations the present leaders will remain perfectly secure in their possession of office.