WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1918, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE PARTY TRUCE. EMBARRASSED MINISTERS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, October 30. In the House of Representatives on Wednesday the motion for the first reading of Mr. Hindmarsh's Workers' Compensation Act Amendment Bill afforded Mr. Poland and Mr. Veitch an opportunity to give the occupants of the Treasury benches a taste of the kind of criticism they are likely to encounter as the session progresses. Both the member for Ohinemuri and the member for Wanganui spoke rather in sorrow than anger. They deplored the fact, or what they said was a fact, that New Zealand, once famed the whole world over for the daring of its industrial and humanitarian legislation, was now lagging hopelessly behind the Mother Country, Australia, America and even Germany in this respect. Mr. Poland would not accept the war as an excuse for the Cabinet's inaction. There was no need, he said, for the Dominion to set its domestic problems aside while it was bending its chief energies towards winning success with the sword. THREATS OF REVOLT, • Mr. Veitch followed in a similar strain, placing a little more emphasis upon the discontent prevailing in the constituencies, and warning Ministers that they must either get on or get out. The incident has loosened other tongues on the subject, and is sure to give additional interest to the Address-in-Reply debate now in progress. Many membars have got it into their heads that a general election will take place before they have another opportunity to address their constituents froiii the floor of the House, and in preparation for ihat event they are assuming an air of independence which is much more common on the hustings than it is in the council chamber. But they have no great desire in their hearts to hasten a dissolution. l lt is patent to everyone that the party truce has not made for the popularity of Ministers on either side, but private members realise that their own fate is too closely allied with that of their leaders to be risked on a premature cast of the die. THE PARTY LEADERS. Their interpretation of the spirit of the party truce, while it prevents them pushing forward controversial legislation, does not permit Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward to appear on the platform as apologists for their inaction. This places them both in an extremely difficult position. At the general election of 1914, for instance, Sir Joseph Ward put before the constituencies the most progressive programme ho had ever framed, and promised members of his party reforms for which they had been striving for more than a quarter of a century. Mr. Massey was in much the same case in that he was Prime Minister, and still unable to dictate the policy of the Government. It is not necessary to sympathise with tbeir policy of masterly inactivity to appreciate the magnitude of their embarrassment, but it is quite certain that both leaders have practised a considerable measure of self-abnegation in their desire to preserve the political peace. THE FUTURE. It is too early yet to speculate upon the result of the next appeal to the electors, but the lobby gossip around the subject is not without some passing interest. It is common talk that three Ministers, at least, will not seek reelection—Sir James Allen, Sir William Eraser and the Hon. T. M. Wilford— and that an unusually large number of private members will voluntarily sever their connection with the House. The popular tip is that Sir Dillon Bell, not Sir Joseph Ward, will be the Dominion's permanent representative in London, and that the Prime Minister of the day will continue his annual visits to the heart of the Empire after the conclusion of the war. All the authorities predict that the old bitter relations between the parties will never be resumed. They always have been more or less a pretencee, rather a part of tl.e tradition-, of the game than a necessary part of its equipment, and their disappearance would be consolation for the political sacrifices of the war. CONCESSIONS TO SOLDJERS. Mr. Jennings (Taumarunui) has given notice to ask the Minister for Defence whether he will inform the House what privileges are granted in this Dominion to members of the British Empire Imperial Forces, which include a number of New Zealanders, in the way of concessions on railway travelling and other compliments that are allowed to all soldiers in other portions of the Empire t HG IRON PROM IRONSAND. The member for Wellington North has given notice to move—That there be laid ■before the House a return showing the. amount and value of pig iron manufactured in the Dominion from the Dominion's deposits of ironsand; the report to state the locality where thu enterprise has bqfn established, and the prospects for the successful commercial carrying out of the manufacture of iron I in the Dominion in the near future.