THE POLITICAL CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1919, Page 8

THE POLITICAL CRISIS.

APPOINTMENT OF NEW MINISTERS. j NOT LIKELY AT PRESENT, By Telegraph.—Press Association. ' Wellington, August 23. As a sequel to the resignation of the Liberal Ministers the work of the administration will have to he apportioned among those remaining. Sir James Allen has already more than a comfortable load with Defence, which has sub-departments bigger than some of the regular departments of State, and he is not being asked' to take any bigger burden. . The Prime Minister, it is understood, will take Finance and Police. Sir Francis Bell, Education, Internal Affairs and Justice; Mr Herries, Customs and Marine and probably coal distribution; Sir William Fraser, Mines and Mr Guthrie, Agriculture. Tins leaves the Post Office and Public Health not accounted for, and it is understood that these Ministers will be replaced. The above allocation is not final, but Mr Massey is certain to take Finance. It is not expected that the new Ministers will be appointed till Mr Massey meets the Reform Party on Wednesday of next week. It may be that he will not hasten to make appointments wen after that, and in any case, he will be quite unlikely to appoint a Cabinet of 12- Ministers. THE HON. G. W. RUSSELL. Wellington, Saturday Night. "The delay in sending in my resignation," stated the Hon. G. W. Russell, "has been caused by important matters in connection with my Departments which I have been most anxious to clear up before leaving the office. In order to do so it was necessary to obtain further reports, and the urgency' of the matter was only brought before me by the officers of the Department after Sir Joseph Ward had actually tendered his resignation, although the fact at that time was unknown to myself. lam hoping to have the report by Monday morning. Whether it is received or 'not my resignation will bo forwarded to His Excellency at midday on Monday."

STATE OF PARTIES.

THE PRESENT SITUATION.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

The strength of the parties in the present House of Representatives cannot be stated with certainty. Four year.* have elapsed since last the House was .divided on party lines, and during that time the lines of party division have become less clearly defined than they were immediately after the election of 1014. .Vine by-elections have taken place since the general election, the net result being that the Reformers and Liberals have each-lost one scat to Labor. After the general election of 1914 the state of parties was as follows: Reform 41 Liberal ' 33 Labor and Independent (i The present position is indicated by the following figures:— Reform 40 Liberal M Independent ;> Labor 5 Independent Labor 2 In these figures Mr. Uru, member for the southern Maori electorate, is classed as an Independent. Mr. Uru succeeded Mr. (J. Parata (Liberal) at a by-election, and he has not publicly declared for either of the parties. A "pricking of the card" gives the following result:— Reform: Allen, Anderson, Bollard. Coates, J. M. Dickson, J. S. Dickson, T A. H. Field, W. H. Field, W. Fraser, Guthrie, Harris, Henarc, Hemes, Hine, Hudson, Hunter, Lang, Lee, Luke, Malcolm, Mander, Massey, Nash, A. K. Newman, F. Newman, Nosworthy, Parr. Pearce, Pomare, Reed, R. 11. Rhodes, T. W. Rhodes, Scott, C. H. Smith, Statham, Stewart, Sykes, Wilkinson, Wright, young. Liberal: Anstey, Brown, Buddo, Carroll, Colvin, Craigie, Dickie, 1511, Findlay, Forbes, Glover, Hanan, Isitt, Jennings, MeCallum, Mac Donald, Myers, Ngata, Poland, Poole, Russell, Seddon, Sidey, R. W. Smith, Talbot, Thacker, Thomson, Ward, Wilford, Witty. Independent: Horn'sby, Payne, Uru. Labor: P. Fraser, Holland, McCombe, Semple, Walker. Independent Labor: S. G. Smith. Veitch. ALLOCATION OF PORTFOLIOS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Aug. 22. The allocation of portfolios about to be made by Mr. Massey is provisional and will be varied later "when additional Ministers are appointed. It appears that, as anticipated, the Prime. Minister does not intend to appoint new Ministers until he has met the Reform members in Wellington. The portfolio to which most interest attaches is that of Finance. Mr. Massey is going to take Finance himself, and is likely to retain it. The Minister for Finance in the 'Reform Government prior to the Coalition was Sir James Allen, who had also Defence and Education. Sir James Aljen finds now that his hands are full with Defence, and he will not resume control of Finance. Sir William Fraser, who used to be regarded as one of the financial authorities on the Reform side, is going to retire from the Ministry altogether. THE NATIONAL CABINET DISSOLVED. RETURN TO PARTY GOVERNMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Aug. 22. The inevitable has happened. Sir Joseph Ward tendered to the GovernorGrncral yesterday his resignation as a member of the National Cabinet, and his Liberal colleagues, with the exception of the Hon. G. W. Russell, arc handing their, resignations to His Excellency to-day. Mr. Russell, as he explained to the represenatives of the Press last night, is delaying Ins retirement till Monday in order that he may "clear up several very important matters" he has in hand- The Minister of Internal Affairs, it is understood, Ims been belter disposed toward, the continuation of the "coalition" than have the other Liberal members of the Cabinet, but he strongly resents the suggestion that he would have been propared to remain in office under a Reform Leader. The announcement of the

definite renunciation of the party truce I'lime as a surprise to moat people, it having, been generally assumed that Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward would remain together at least till the meeting of Parliament, liu the intimate friends of the two leaders were prepared for what has happened and, of course, are iricwing. it from somewhat different standpoints. "MOVING BACKWARDS." The Dominion, which again, it may he presumed, will become the official uvouthpiece of the Reform Party, is frankly displeased and a little angry. In a, leading article headed ''Moving Backwards" it takes the Liberal leader severely to task. "Sir Joseph Ward mid those who stand with him,'' it says, "have elected to revert ignobly to the petty aims of faction and to the paltry and miserable outlook in which personal Mid party interests' and ambition are regarded as of more moment than national welfare. But, while the immedite effect is to awaken strife and discord, the course to which -Sir Joseph Ward and his supporters are committed is so obviously backward, so manifestly runs directly counter to the interests of the Dominion and its. people, that the effect must be more or less rapidly to quicken and increase the growing' demand for political leadership and a political outlook worthy of the times." Thin, it must be confessed does not quite strike the highest note of conciliatory intervention. "POLITICAL FREEDOM." Under this 'heading the New Zealand Times presents the opposite view of the positon. "The Liberal leader," it says, "has ended the political truce and issued his programme. The first ht: has done at the logical date, the second at the psychological'meir.ent. As leader of the Liberal party he /alt compelled to join forces with'the other side on account of the war. Three times reelected he remained faithful to that necessary political compact. At the earliest possible moment after the war lie has recognised that the war compact has no longer a basis and he has recigned his position in the Cabinet, dissolving by that act the political truce." For Sir Joseph's programme' the Liberal u'gan lias nothing but approval. "It is the programme," it sums up, "of a leader who does not despair of the Republic, who faces his task with cournge, sense, prudence, a deep sense of justice, and a high ideal of duty. It deserves and ought to command success." This is the other impression of the picture. THE LIBERAL PROGRAMME. , Those of Sir Joseph Ward's friends tvhp feared the Liberal leader would not make his programme progressive enough to catch the eye and please the c,y of those electors who are looking for a new heaven and a new earth to arise from the devastation of the war may set their troubled minds at rest. The Dominion describes the programme as ;i "plunge for popularity," and with notes of exclamation heads its text '•scattering millions" and "still more harassing." There are to bo national ■hanks, national coal mines, national ferry services and national flour mills; the Main Trunk railways are to be completed in three years, the cost of living is to be effectively handled, »the lands of the country are to ba occupied Tor intense use and many other things me to be done to realise the dreams of people who honestly believe the whole structure of industry, commerce, and society need reconstruction along sane and beneficient lines. FOUR. YEARS I,Y OFFICE.. ORIGIN OF THE COALITION. The official announcement, in Parliament that an agreement had been arrived at between the two principal parties in the House of Representative to form a National Cabinet to carry on '.lie administration of the country during the war was made on August' 4, ths' first anniversary of the Empire's enhance into the war. The reconstruction iViis completed on August (i, and the Ministry assumed office on August 12, so that the Coalition has existed for just over four years.

The preliminary negotiations extended over several weeks. The first proposal for a coalition was .made by the Prime Minister in the House on the evening of Juno 29, 1015, when he iniiounced that the members of the Government were prepared to consider any reasonable proposal to establish a National Cabinet, and invited the Leader of (he Opposition, Sir Joseph Ward, to discuss the matter with him, A month later it seemed that the proposal would fall to the ground, but lit the invitation of the Governor, representatives of the two principal parties met in conference at Government Roust on August 2, and two days later the accomplishment of an agreement between them was announced by the Prime Minister. In his- (statement in the House uf Representatives, Mr. Massey said that in view of the fact that the Empire was passing through the most serious crisis in its history it was; impossible for. a Government with a slender majority to do all the business, that was required to enable the Dominion to do its part. That was the only reason for the formation of the National Government, and lie believed that what ivas being done would be for the good of the Kmpire and the Dominion. Kaeli party had agreed to stand by what the two leaders decided, and ii basis of agreement had been reached. This was that the representation from both sides of the House in the Cabinet would b'c equal. Parliament adjourned for a fortnight, and on August 10 the personnel of the Cabinet was announced by Mr. Massey. During the existence of the National Cabinet two changes took place .in its |itrsonnal, one through the death of the Hon. Dr. Robert McXab, in February, 1917, and the other through the retirement of the Hon. A. L. Herdmim cm iiMDIS. Mr. T. M. Wilford was ap-1 pointed to fdl the vacancy caused by Ihe death of Dr. McNub, and Mr. D. H. Cnthrio. replaced Mr. Herdman. Since the formation of the National Cabinet, the two lenders have been absent from the Dominion on three occasions. In 1917, they represented New Zealand at the first meeting of the Imperial War Cabinet held in London during March, 1917, and returned on June 25. They also attended the meeting of the Imperial War C'a.binet houi in London in June, 1918, relumed to the Dominion on October 12. The leaders Again left on December 12, 19!S, to attend the Pence Conference, and returned to New Zealand on August 5. During j these periods, Sir James Allen acted as Prime Minister, and Mr. MacD.onald as leader of the Liberal Party.