WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1919, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE POLITICAL POSITION. HON. W. D. S. MACDONALDB VIEWS. (Special Correspondent} Wellington, Feb. 1Naturally the Hon. W. D. 6. MacDonald, the acting leader of the Liberal Party in the absence of Sir Joseph Ward, was a little divident this afternoon in responding to an invitation to speak a piece for publication concerning the political position. In the morning papers there was a paragraph stating that the Hon. T. M. Wilford had declared himself emphatically in favor of ending the party truce and the National Cabinet on the signing or peace. It was sought to ascertain what tho Minister of Agriculture, standing "in the shoes of his party chief, thought "about the matter. But he was not very communicative. -, You will not expect me to speak quite so definitely on this subject as my colleague has done," he said, as an assertion and as an interrogative. "The public would be apt to assume that any views I expressed were the views of my absent chief and that obviously wouid be unfair to him. Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, with the concurrence of Partiamßnt, made tho party truce and the National Cabinet, and they alone can unmake them, if they are to be unmade." Further than this the Minister would not go along these lined. THE EXISTING COMPACT. But Mr Mac Donald was quite ready to talk about the existing compact and the obligations it imposed upon Ministers and private members of the House. "It was not expected wlt.en the compact was made," he went on to say, "that the war would continue for four and a half years and keep the country in political inactivity all that time. " Personally, I should have hesitated to place Buch a ■strain upon the patience of the electors without looking around for some alternative had I anticipated anything of the kind. A year, or a year and a half at most, seemed as long as we should require to leave our domestic affairs in abeyance, and at the time this did not spem too big a price to pay for a united effort towards winning the war." Though he does not admit as much, it is pretty evident that Mr Mac Donald has found the compact a pretty big tax upon his own Patience- He is not in public life for the fun he gets out of it and the burden of waiting weighs heavily upon his practical soul. LABOR. l Discussing the recent political activities of Labor the Minister breathed a spirit of sweet tolerance- He always had encouraged the direct representation of the workers in Parliament up to the full strength of their voting power, he said, and he would not be greatly perturbed if they got a little more than their precise share. But they would not exercise the influence they should in improving their own lot and shaping the destinies of the country till they realised that their strength lay in the ballet box and not in the promotion of the workers being disloyal to the Erapiro, and quoted their services during the war as a refutation of the suggestion. ''Yes," he added smilingly in reply to an inter* jeetion, "they are giving the National Cabinet a pretty rough time, hut they have the field all to themselves just now and the National Cabinet is a stimulating subject." THE FUTURE. Mr Mac Donald protested it was impossible to discuss the future without presuming this or that was going xo happen to one or the other of the political parties, but pressed on the point he mentioned one or two things Now Zealand would have to do for its own salvation whatever party were in office, in order that it might bear the increased burden of taxation and still enjoy some of the relaxations of life it would have to enormously increase its production !>v inducing every suitable man and woman to go on to the land, and it would have to so adjust the relations between employers and employed in every industrial pursuit that willing hands would always be available for the work to be done. It sound 3 a little Utopian put into a single sentence, but Mr MacDonald believes the country is prepared for heroic measures. "We have done during the war what seemed impossible before," he said in conclusion "Surely we ought to be able to do greater things in time of peace."-