PUZZLE OF PARTIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 December 1922, Page 5

PUZZLE OF PARTIES.

NEXT WEEK WILL TELL. FULL FIGURES NECESSARY. A MINISTER IN DANGER. (By Wire—Own Correspondent.) . Wellington, Last Night. Though the position is still uncertain, the division of parties at present shows that the Government is weaker by two votes than its combined opponents. It must be remembered, however, that the figures at present available are only those of the preliminary count. The official count next week, when the numbers will be carefully checked and the absentee votes taken into the reckoning, may alter the position to some extent. In the meantime the Prime Minister is not prepared to make any statement of . his intentions. “Show me the official figures first,” he said to a reporter today when he. was asked whether the situation called for an early meeting of Parliament.

The actual strength of the Government on a no-confidence division is probably greater than 38, even if the regular adherents to Reform are limited to that number. Several of the Liberals have indicated during the campaign that they will support the Government on a no-confidence motion rather than see it at the mercy of the Reds. The latest of the preliminary returns place the Minister of Justice (the Hon. E. P. Lee) one vote behind his opponent in the Oamaru contest. The absentee votes in the electorate are fairly numerous, and they may yet save the seat for Reform. The Wallace seat seems to have been definitely wrested from the Government, because’if the preliminary returns are correct there does not seem to be much scope left for a recovery there through the absentee votes. Cabinet will probably meet about the middle of next week.

COALITION OR ANOTHER APPEAL? PRESS CRITICISMS. The Wellington Dominion states that the indications at the moment are that • the Reform Government’s independent majority over all parties has been reduced to very small proportions, it it has not disappeared. It appears fairly certain that the Reform Party will at least equal the combined strengths ot the two competing parties, the Wilfordites and extreme Labor. The unsatisfactory prospect is raised that the Reform Party may be so weakened as to endanger stable Government, while neither of the other two parties nas half the strength which would enable it, acting independently, to take office. It is already manifest that the Milford party has played a purely wrecking part. To appearance it has added little to its own strength, and the beginning and the end of its achievement

has been to weaken the Government. The Dominion adds that “the Prime Minister frankly admits that he cannot say what will be the. outcome. With characteristic equanimity in the face of adversity, Mr. Massey makes a simple declaration that whatever circumstances may arise he and his associates in the Ministry will do their duty. It remains to ibe seen what that duty will be. Mr. Massey will not attempt to carry on unless he can see his way clear to doing so. If he should decline to face the responsibility With an insecure majority, what is the alternative ?” , The New Zealand Times takes the view that Parliament must meet immediately. “The Government,” it says, “having no majority and no possible prospect of getting a working majority, and the state of public affairs being critical, the strong stable majority of the Beform appeal to the electors is still the supreme public necessity, and Mr. Massey is faced with the constitutional course usual in such situations as he has himself indicated he would do in a certain event. ■ He must call Pai - liament together at an early date and tender his resignation. The question or his successor will arise immediately, but this question can only lead into an impasse, for the balance of the parties is too even to give to the Opposition that for want of which the Government resigns—a working majority. But the Opposition consists ot two bodies that cannot possibly unite for any purpose. The pledges of the ibi era! leader, Mr. Wilford, and of every member of his party, bind them not • 0 join with Mr. Hollands people for any .purpose whatever. What are they going to do when they come to deal with the question of forming a Government? It has been sometimes suggested that two parties in OpP os ™° n

might unite for the purpose of carrying proportional representation and going to the country on a new franchise, but this course is made difficult bv lack of a working majority for the combination. An alternative way out may be found by a move across the floor of enough Liberals to make the. Government strong enough for practical purposes. We cannot say that any Liberals would do that, but certainly many would prefer it to joining with the Labor Party and submitting to its dictation. Another alternative would h‘ a Coalition of Liberals with the Reform Party to form a strong Government, Reform submitting to a certain amount of Liberal dwtat.on. However, it is early to anything. The main thing is for laru ment to meet early.”