WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1919, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE LICENSING POLLJST INDECISIVE VICTORY. Correspondent.) i Wellington, April 28. | Though it is difficult to> follow the figures of the licensing poll as they are j being doled out to the public, it seems I fairly certain now that the majority for continuance will not be sufficiently large to bo regarded as a decisive victory for the Moderatea. If this should prove to be the case a more bitter and costly struggle than ever will take place between the contending parties at the time of the general election, and in anticipation of this they both have sent representatives to Ajnerica to gather what ammunition they can in the United States and Canada for their next trial of strength. The Prohibitionists profess to bo satisfied that prohibition without compensation will appeal to the great body of electors more strongly than did prohibition with compensation, but in this view they are not supported by disinterested people who may be supposed to-take an unbiased view of the position. THE TRIANGULAR. CONTEST. The great obstacle to the success of the Prohibitionists, however, will be the introduction of the State control issue. Information obtained from many sources since the recent poll goes to show that pot more than one half of the electors, at the outside, who voted for the total abolition of the drink traffic were pledged supporters of prohibition. The other half was made up of people dissatisfied with the present system of licensing or impressed by the recommendations of the Efficiency Board who had no other alternative to continuance. It seems not unreasonable to assume that a substantial proportion of these will vote for State control, and that in the absence of any provision for preferential voting their support will be lost to prohibition. Then in the event of neither State control nor prohibition obtaining a clear majority of the votes polled, continuance, as the status quo, will be carried and the eternal problem wilL remain as far from solution as ever. THE PARTY LEADERS. Statements that were in circulation here some months ago to the effect that Mr. Massey might return to New Zea-. land only to bid farewell to his personal and political friends before taking up the position of Resident Minister for the Dominion in London have travelled as far , as Paris, and received what may be | deemed an official contradiction. To begin with, legislation would be required before anyone could be appointed to the position indicated —before the position can be created, indeed—and such legislation would need the presence of both the party leaders to make it acceptable to the House. Then Mr. Massey could not in decency make any arrangement of the kind without first consulting his political friends in the Dominion, and so far he has shown no particular desire to take up his permaneut residence at the other end of the world. Nor has he given his intimate friends the idea that he ever has contemplated such a step. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, But Mr. Massey's disinclination to figure in Imperial politics need not be taken to mean that he is hoping to remain at the head of a National Government in this country. It is an open secret that many of his political friends and some of his political opponents have given him to understand that they are averse to the.[indefinite prolongation of the "coalition," and that he is not without a certain measure of sympathy with their view.. It is, in fact, fairly safe to say that the "party truce" will be terminated before the next general election, and that the two old parties will go to the polls unhampered by any of the pledges that have made for silence and inaction during the last three or four years. This will be a disappointment to the less responsible members of the Labor Party-, but it should conduce to the return of a thoroughly representative Parliament whenever the election comes about.