WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1918, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

WELLINGTON CENTRAL SELECTION OF CANDIDATE'S. (Special Corespondent.) Wellington, Sept. 9. The Hon. W- D. iS. Mao Donald, the acting leader of the Liberal Party in the absence of Sir Joseph Ward, wiia too | fully occupied last week witjj the presstag business of the various departments lie controls to give much attention to Hie impending by-election in Wellington Central. To-day, however, he is conferring with a number of representative electors in the constituency, and expects to be able to announce the narnu of the selected Liberal candidate for the seat in the course of a day or two. His hopes it will be possible to secure a candidate acceptable to both the Liberals and the Laboritcs, as was the case when Mr. Robert Fletcher, the late member, won the seat from the Hon. T?. M. B. Fisher in 1914, but so far the Labor organisations have made no suggestion towards this end, and the popular opinion is that they will follow the same course as they did in the Wellington North by-election and put out a candidate of their own, free from obligations of any kind to either of the other parties. ttOaai . OFFICIAL LABOR. The view of official Labor is that, not having subscribed to the "party truce," it is free to raise any politicial issue it may please during the bv-eleetion; is bound, indeed, to see the internal affairs of the country are not overlooked in the supreme importance of winning the war. That many Liberals, and Reformers, too, for the matter of that, sympathise with this view up to a certain point, goes without saying, and Mr.' Mao Donald's own frank admission is that the truce should not save the National Government from the freest criticism of its doriiestio policy and administration. This at least leaves Labor with a fairly wide choice in the selection of 9 candidate, and point 3 to a "basis on which the "Laborites and the Liberals might revive the understanding which existed between them four years ago. At thb moment, however, the prospects of such an arrangement are not very encouraging. REDIJOING reinforcements. The mobilisation of another draft of the Second Division has set certain people talking again of a reduction of the Dominion's monthly reinforcements. Some of them even urge that now America is pouring her soldiers into Franco by their hundreds of thousands, it is utterly utinecessaray, and even worse, for New Zealand to continue depleting Herself of the man-power of which she stands so much in need. It is a comparatively small minority, as far as can be gathered, -that holds this view, but it is a fairly noisy one, and its protests, which do not usually emanate from the members of the Second 'Division themselves, are reaching the cars of the Minister of Defence. Sir James Allen, however, while not unmindful of the sacrifice's that are being made, holds firmly to the view that the Dominion must discharge its full obligations tojhe Mother Country, aud that its task will be done when the war is over. THE SESSION. In political circles the opinion ispow- ■ ine that the approaching session will extend over Christmas, ami that whatever mn.v be the course of the war, it probably, will be the last one of the present Parliament. It is 'generally that Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward will not reach Wellington till about t.ie middle of next month, and that, they ill not wish the session to open ooforo thev can take their place* in the HounO. If ftese assumptions are correct, oniv eight or nine weeks will remain before the holidays, and with such big questions as "finance, Imperial relations, licensing, repatriation, and duration of Parliament to settle, th's time will be totally inadequate for the orderly transaction of the country's business. A sec(nd session in March nnd n. dissolution at th-; adm.u'v time in December is anions? the suggestions being made, bvit this has no color of Ministerial author>y.