WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE LIBERAL LEADER NO FACTIOUS OPPOSITION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, March 19. The Hon. W- D. S. Mac Donald returned to Wellington on Wednesday night after an absence of five' or six weeks during which lie has been resting and receiving medical treatment for his injured arm. He is greatly improved in health, but his arm still is giving him some trouble, and he is not yet out of tho hands of the doctors. The immediate purpose of his return to town was to join in the farewell to his old colleague, the Hon A. M. Slyer?, and lie is not, inclined to discuss politics in any detail while the Prime Minister is lying on a sick bod. In a chat this morning, however, he indicated very plainly lie had no intention of offering any factious opposition to the Government. "We want to help the "Ministry in dealing with the big problems by which it is confronted." lie said, ,! and 1 hope Mr. Massey will accept our assistance in the spirit it will be offered.'' That is the Liberal policy for the moment. BON VOYAGE. It was a very fiordial gathering Inaugurated by the Commercial Travellers' Association yesterday to bid farewell to the Hon. A. M. Myers, who is leaving to-day with his family on a visit to Ungland. After the commercial men had paid warm tributes to theii guest's personal and business qualities, the politicians out-did them in their eulogistic references to Mr. Myers' loyalty as a colleague, chivalry as an opponent, and industry, ability and integrity as a public servant. Mr. W. D."s.'MacDonald said New Zealand could never know the full measure of its indebtedness to Mr. Myers, but for years to come it would he benefiting from his foresight, sound administration, and untiring devotion to duty. No man had done more for the Dominion in the days of its greatest trial and none deserved hotter' of Its people. His absence even for a slngfe session would be a great loss to Parliament and to,the country. THE STRATFORD SEAT. The unseating of Mr- Robert Masters, the chosen representative of a majority of the electors of Stratford, has come as a surprise to political circles here. Of course the interpretation of the law by learned judges is not questioned for a single moment. Their finding is clearly supported by the statute. But the law itself is being widely denounced as the proverbial "Hass." It seems to have created a purely technical offence of which the most punctilious candidate for Parliament might be guifty, and to have provided a penalty that could fall justly on corruption. 'That the judges recognised its flagrant inconsistency may be gathered from the fact that they have held Mr. Masters' 1 to be innocent of any intentional impropriety ami given him leave to contest the seat again. It is cold comfort, but apparently all they could offer. THE MINISTER OF LANDS. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie, the Minister of Lands, has been alarming some of his timid friends lately by talking at'large of a Land Amendment Bill he lias in preparation for the approaching session of Parliament. Possibly ttie newspaper reports of his remarks' have not given a very clean indication of his intentions, but many people have read them to mean that he is contemplating granting the freehold of endowment lands and employing compulsion in the sub-division of Native estates. If these are planks in the Minister's new land policy they will revive many of tho old controversies and give mortal offence to the Native members sitting on his own side of the House. No doubt Mr. Guthrie will disclose the main features of his Bill before the House meets, but at the moment speculation is running riot round the subject and the Minister's critics are not seeking to make his way easy. COST OF LIVING. ' The appointment of the local tribunals which Mr. Massey hopes will prove another barrier in the way of the profiteer are not arousing -much enthusiaam The failure of the Prime Minister himself with all his good intentions, and of the Hoard of Trade with all its industry and vigilance to cheek the continued advance in the cost of living has left the consumers with a feeling of despair. The Returned Soldiers' Association, however, taking the matter in hand and it hopes at a public meeting to be held shortly under its auspices to stir an apathetic public into some sort of effective action that will save the community from what one of the promoters described as the last straw of extortion. Tlie promised agitation has not inspired the patient housewife with much hope.