WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

I A DISCORDANT NOTE. | PROBABLE RETORT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 27. The Hon, J\ B. Hine struck a discordant note in his address to his constituents at Stratford on Saturday night which is likely to disturb the comparative harmony that lias prevailed in the House of Representatives since the termination of the party truce. It was very natural, of course, that the new Minister, largely dependent upon the dairy farmers for his seat in the House and for his promotion to Cabinet, should have wished to be early in the field with a contradiction of the general assumption in his constituency that Mr. Massey was mainly responsible for the institution of the equalisation fund which in practice proved to be a special tax upon the butter producers. By stating that the National Governmnet had levied the tax and that the Prime Minister on returning to the Dominion and discovering its evil effects had abolished it, he seemed to imply that Mr. Massey had had no part in its imposition and that he alone had been the saviour of the farmers. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY Mr. Robert Masters, one of the leading business men of Stratford, who Has done good work on the Taranaki Education Board, and is now a candidate for the seat Mr. Hine is occupying, in a measure was responsible for the Minister's somewhat precipitate plunge into party politics. He denounced the special butter tax as being outrageously unfair and opposed to.all sound economic principles, and declared no Government capable of inflicting such an injustice upon a section of the community was worthy of the confidence of the people. His criticism on the face of it was for the National Government, not for any individual members of the Coalition Cabinet, but Mr. Hine took it to be directed against his own party and protested accordingly. Perhaps neither of these I gentlemen quite understood the ctiI (|uette of Cabinet rule, but between jthem they hnveijjivpn a personal turn to the administration of the National Cabinet which may set other tongues wagging in the near future, perhaps before the session is over. AUCKLAND EAST. The announcement that Mr. Clutha Mackcnize, a son of the High Commissioner, is to be the Reform candidate for Auckland East in opposition to the Hon. A. M. Myers at the approaching election did not como altogether as a surprise to the people who have been [ watching the course of events during the last few months. Mr. Mackenzie has made no secret of his ambition towards a parliamentary career, and, though his qualifications for such a career still have to be revealed, he has many personal qualities that will appeal to the electors. He has been allotted a difficult task in Auckland East, however, where Mr. Myers' services to the Dominion m the Cabinet during the war are no less warmly appreciated than are his services to the "Queen City" over a long series of years. The contest is likely to be a keen one, but the friends of the sitting member are confident of his ultimate success, in spite of the strenuous efforts that are being made on the ether side.