WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

LIBERAL DEMONSTRATION. AN OPTIMISTIC LEADER. (From Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Sept. 3. The meeting held in the Town Hall on Monday night, for the purpose, as the advertisement of the promoters stated, of giving the public an opportunity of expressing its appreciation of the services rendered to the community by Sir Joseph Ward as a' member of the National Government and as a delegate to the Peace Conference, was one of the most notable gatherings of the kind seen here since the great Reform demonstration in the same place eight years ago. It was not intended to be primarily a party affair, the public being admitted without let or hindrance till every seat and standing place in the vast hall was filled, but it inevitably took on that color, and was most cordially disposed towards the Leader of the Opposition, from end beginning to end. Sir Joseph was suffering from a severe cold, but by compressing his speech into a bare sixty minutes, he managed to make a happy contribution to the harmony of the proceedings without asking for any indulgence from his audience.

AN UNINVITED GUEST.

People who attended the meeting in the hope of hearing the ex-Miniater of Finance "fling off" at his late colleagues in the National Government were disappointed, but they were ouiisoied to some extent by a passing hint at the relations which had prevailed between the party leaders during their visit to London and Paris. The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph said, had not asked him to continue in the National Govenment and that seemed to him a pretty good, answer to the people who were reproaching him for not hanging on to office as an uninvited guest. The arrangement between the parties was for the period of the war and the signing of the Peace Treaty had put an end to it. The subject cropped up in the Houße again yesterday, and Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward appeared for a moment or two to be on the point of making further revelations, but the incident closed with the hope of curious folk still deferred.

STILL UNCONVINCED. Of course the New Zealand Times never has had any doubt that Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues did the right thing in separating themselves from the impotent coalition at the earliest possible moment and it grows jubilant over what it regards as the public's endorsement of its view. The Dominion, having taken a day to think about the matter, is still unsatisfied. "Looked at without prejudice," it says this morning, "Sir Joseph Ward's explanation of his action in reviving party political strife is chiefly noteworthy as betraying a petty outlook and a perverted conception of the responsibilities of a political leader." But tlio Reform journal takes on a little optimism itself and does not despair of the sane Liberals returning to the coalition hold. "It is hardly in doubt," it declares at the conclusion of its regrets, "that irresistible popular pressure will ere long compel an effective union of working forces in Parliament." THE PROSPECT. At the moment there is nothing on the surface to suggest an early realisation of this hope- Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues, it would seem to the average observer, have -cut themselves adrift irretrievably from the coalition, and Mr Massey on his part is betraying no particular desire to have them back. But there are whispers in the lobbies of arrangements which might make the Prime Minister independent of Liberal forbearance at least for the present session of Parliament. There, still is a vacant seat in the Cabinet and on former occasions when parties have been evenly balanced a spare portfolio has proved extremely useful in securing stability for the party in otuce. Two of Sir Joseph's recent colleagues are sitting away from the front Opposition benches and there are one or two less promiuent "progressives" who conceivably might be induced to assist in the temporary revival of the Bnirit «£ the party truce.