THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10580, 11 March 1912, Page 4

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

The political situation in New Zealand is daily .becoming more involved. The country, under a defective electoral, system, is in the unique position that a discredited Party, • a Party which is in a -minority in,the House, may ibe able to control the administrative machinery of the Dominion for a I lengthy period. No amount of cir- | cumlocution or scheming can convert a political minority into a majority. If it be admitted that the voice of the country was against- the. Ward Ministry—and the retirement of Sir Joseph is emphatic proof that it was—it is surely an outrage upon constitutional government that the policy which has been condemned should be continued under another name. Sir Joseph Ward, prior to convening the late session of Parliament, -stated that, after close investigation, he had found that the two great parties were of equal .strength. Admitting, for the purposes of argument, that this statemen of the position b t > correct, is it right or just that one of these great parties should assume administrative responsibilities to which it is not entitled ? The only honourable course open to Sir Joseph Ward, in such circumstances, would be to make another appeal to the country.