WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

POLITICAL PARTIES. THE MfeOALLUMITES. ~—. N (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 22. The Dominion this morning pokes fun at Mr. MeCallum's new party —the McOallumites, as it calls its members—as well it may. The member for Wairau, whose cheery optimism easily might be misinterpreted by a stranger,' seems to have been talking very much at large when lie gave a representative of one of the Auckland papers to understand that a 'fresh gspup of "ProgressiveIndependents" was in course of formation in the House of Representatives. Anyone could have marked off fifteen members of the House who claimed to be unattached to either of the old parties, and who would have indignantly resented any suggestion of sympathy with the extreme Labor Parly, but only Mr. McCallum could have Imagined that the fifteen members he mentioned were converging towards a coalition that by and by woiild constitute the' official Opposition.

INDEPENDENCE. The incident, however, is not without serfous'interest. The Wellington paper, whose sympathies, with a certain amount of friendly candour, are on the side of the Reform Party, does not demur to the suggestion that Mr. Massey's solid following, his "thick and thin brigade" a* it has been dubbed, numbers no more than forty-three, including his three Maori stalwarts and not placing the Speaker, the Hon. A. M. Myers, who is absent in England, and Mr. Lysnar, whose party leanings still are delightfully indefinite. Forty-three means a majority of nine when the other groups can muster only thirty-four votes between them, and, of course, makes Mr. Massey's position perfectly secure for the life of the present Parliament, but it does not represent the overwhelming strength that would not be good for any leader. ,

THE MEAT TRUST. The Meat Trust was up for judgment in the House yesterday afternoon on a report from the Agricultural and Stock Committee to the effect that the issue of a meat export liconse to Armour and Co. of Australia would be inimical to the interests of both the producer and the consumer. The evidence submitted to the committee appears to haxe overwhelmingly justified the tenor of its report, but Mr. George Forbes, the member for Hurunui, a sheep farmer and a particularly sane and capable advocate of the interests of iii.s class, expressed a quite different view. The Government, he said, had refused the permit without giving a reason, and now the committee had endorsed the refusal, still without giving a reason. The agitation, he maintained, had not come from the farmers at afy but from (lie meat exporters, who feared strong competition would compel them to pay higher prices. |

THE OTHER SIDE. Mr. Forbes' view was not the popular one in the House by any means. Mr. Vernon Reed, the member for Bay of Islands, gave it some half-hearted support, and Mr. David Jones, the member for Kaiapoi, confessed to a measure of sympathy with the American enterprise. But Mr. Robert Masters, the member for Stratford, and the Minister of Agriculture, were ready witli very strong indictments against the. Meat Trust, witli which they unhesitatingly associated the Armour Company. Mr. Masters insisted that the farmers who had petitioned in favor of a license being issued to the 'linn were in no way representative of the farmers of the Dominion, and •the lion. W. Nosworthy quoted at length the finding of the .United States District Court, which, he said, undoubtedly included concerns of the Armour character in its sweeping denunciation. The debate was proceeding when the dinner adjournment arrived, and Mr. Masscy promised an opportunity for its continuation.