WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1920, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE DEPARTED GUEST. PLIvASANT MEMORIES (Special Correspondent). Wellington, May 10. Wellington is returning to work to-day after having devoted much the better part oi a week to loyal holiday-making in» honor of the Prince of Wales, The city wears a somewhat drab appearance with its brave show of bunting and greenery well advanced in the sear and yellow and its streets and enclosures 6till littered with the debris of feasting and festivity, but its people carry about with them very pleasant recollections of their departed guest, and a new conception of tlu- part he plays in the solidarity of the Empire. The visit of the Prince was much less formal than that of his father nineteen years ago—in the days before the Empire had found itself—and it has left behind a wide-spread feeling of personal attachment to the Throne which was scarcely known by the native-born New Zealander before. LABOUR AND LOYALTY. One of the minor outcomes of the Prince's visit is a challenge appearing in the local papers to-day from Mr. John Pox, one of the founders of the Returned Soldier's' Association, and one of its most Sturdy pillars to-day, to Mr. Peter Fraser, the member for Wellington Central, to resign his seat in Parliament and contest it with the challenger. Mr. Eraser, holding the perverted view a small minority of the Labor Party does in regard to the position the Crown occupies in the Constitution, declined to sign the address of welcome presented to the Prince by the City Council, and Mr. Fox wishes to contest his seat with ham on this question. Mr. Eraser is scarcely likely to accept the challenge, and the Prince would be the last person to wish him to do so, but the incident fairly represents the temper of the community. A vast majority of the member's constituents are utterly out of sympathy with his attitude, THE MINISTRY. Mr. Masaey's last excuse for delaying the completion of his Cabinet re-construc-tion was extinguished by the defeat of the Hon. J. B. Iline'at the Stratford election. Even the Prime Minister's own personal and political friends are becoming more than a little impatient of the system of "one-man Government'' which the Reform leader was wont to denounce so fervently in the days of Mr. Seddon and which he has maintained himself since the general election in December. They find no fault with his loyalty to Mr. Hine nor with a seat in the Cabinet having been kept vacant for that gentleman, but they object very strongly to the administrative drift that has been going on during the last five or sis months and that is threatening to land the country into even more serious trouble than the railway strike, which, they say, is directly traceable t.) Mr. Massey's inability to give adequate attention to all the duties he has taken upon himself.