THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1912. TO-DAY'S CAUCUS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10589, 21 March 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1912. TO-DAY'S CAUCUS.

A good deal of interest'is being manifested throughout the Dominion in •tflie "Liberal" caucus to be htkl in Wellington to-night. At this caucu*. Sir Joseph Ward intends, in accordance with a promise made prior to the taking of the division on the no-confi-dence motion in the House, to tender Iris resignation as Prime Minister.. This resignation, if accepted by the Party and ha tided to His Excellency the Governor, will involve the resignation of the* whole of the Ministry. Since Sir Joseph Ward made his announcement in the House,-there Iris been a good deal of speculation as to wfhat will be the outcome of the resignation, The names of the Hon. J. A. Millar, the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Mr Macdonald, Mr Laurenson, and others have been freely mentioned in connection with the Premiership, but the party appears to be so divided on the question that the accession to power of either of these would almost inevitably result in a. f.-p.Ut. The Hon.

J. A. Millar would seem to have tho strongest claims to the position, but there are personal reasons wkvh "v- ill militate against his chances ofssele- t tion. Moreover, at least one of tho * Labour four has made it clear that if Mr Millar remains in the Ministry h'u t support will be withdrawn. As far | a-s file Hon. T. Mackenzie is <;« cd, he is an ardent freehold-.'!', and ; this in its-elf will make his josition untenable as leader ot a Radical-Lab- | our Party. Mr Laurenson, en the other hand, is a pronounced leaseholder, and he would not be acceptable to tho j freehold element 0:1 the Liberal side of ' Hire House. Mr Macdonnld lias the, ! advantage of being nothing in particular, and as such he must be ruled I out as impossible. With so l'-any d:v- j eree and irreconcilable elements in the Lib.-Lab. party, it would -eem almostimpossible for any leader to assumo the reins of office with a hope of carrying on tho affairs of the country for more than a few months. The only person on the political koriz.m who can keep the Party together is Sir Jiosopli Ward. It is not at all improbable, therefore, that the outcome of the caucus will be that Sir Jr.seph will be pressed to continue in office, and will be given a free hand to recon struct- the Ministry. The resolutions which are being passed by the Liberals up and down the country indicate pretty clearly that this is the course which will be adopted. Those I who know Sir Joseph Ward best are j inclined to the belief that he will yield to pressure and consent to retain the 'position of Prime Minister. Should ho do so, he may lay himself open to ,ihe charge of breaking faith with members of the Bouse; but, in view ■of recent events, this may not be regarded in a very serious light. Tho position altogether is very interesting. To Sir Joseph Ward and his minority following, it is doubtless perplexing. In the view of a great many people there is 110 me-ans of escape for the discredited Party, excepting through the ballot box. To reconstruct the Ministry from the remnants of the Party will be a most difficult contract. The fact is that the only compact .party in the House is on the exposition benches, and this, if it were given power, could not hope to carry on for more than a few months. All fillings considered, it seems obvious thaAhere must, either be a fusion of the moderates of the two great parties, or another appeal to the country must be made.