WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE APPROACHING SESSION , (Own Correspondent.) Already there are. indications that the approaching session of Parliament will be a long and turbulent one. A Liberal representative of a southern constituency who is in Wellington just now, and who warmly approves of the Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald's conciliatory attitude towards the Government, says he expects no such "sporting spirit" from the extreme wing of the Labor Party. He believes there will 'be bitter and personal criticism directed by Mi. Holland and his colleagues against the Government's admin-

istration during the recess and that it will be carried to the extreme leng hs permitted by the forms of the House. He expects a great deal about the Samoa mandate, soldiers' settlements, cost of living and industrial conditions. The extremists have got it into their heads that the general elections showed them to have a great accession of strength and that they need only to make none enough to secure a decisive advance. THE OLD PARTIES. Be this as it may, the Labor Party plainly is far and away the most active of the political divisions in the Dominion at the present time. Here it. is holding open air meetings on every day of the week and big gatherings in one of the picture theatres every Sunday. These demonstrations may not mean a great deal of progress but they are keeping the.Party alive and probably winning a certain number of converts. On the other hand, the Liberals are leaving the Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald to light, their battles single-handed and the Reformers are relying upon Mr. Massey and the other occupants of the Treasury benches to hold the fort on their account. Mr. Edio received no assistance from the Liberal leaders, beyond their goodwill, in .winning the Bruce seat, and Mr. Masters is receiving none in the stiff fight he is carrying on at Stratford. Fortunately for his Party the latter gentleman seems well able to take care of himself.

THE HOUSING PROBLEM. The Labor's Party yesterday was devoted to a discussion of the housing problem and the speakers in addition to finding it a very congenial suhject had no dilliculty in producing a number of "horrid examples." One of them quoted the ease of eight families living in one Sroomed house and described the preparations for the visit of the Prince of Wales as a "wicked waste." The authorities, he said, were showing a great deal more, concern for the luxurious entertainment of one Prince than for the bare necessities of thousands of women and children. Another speaker who professed to be acquainted with the poorest quarters of the big cities at Home declared they contained no shims worse than those existing in Wellington. Mr. P. Fraser, the member for Wellington Central, said the conditions in the city were a disgrace to humanity. The sad part of all this is that it has very real foundation in fact.