RESPONSIBILITY OF OFFICE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 144, 15 December 1911, Page 8

RESPONSIBILITY OF OFFICE.

HAND IT TO MB-. MASSEY. (SI TXLIORAPH- -SPECIAL 20 TBS f«II.] AUCKLAND, This Day. ' The Star, tn a leading < article, says : "One fact that emerges clearly from ■the confusing mass of figures is that neither Mr. Massey nor Sjb? Joseph Ward can command a % reasonable^working majority in Parliament. The issue in at least two electorates is not yet absolutely settled. If the Labour mem ibers decided to vote as a party in favour of the Liberals," for whom they have the greatest natural 'affinity, the character of the situation would be changed at once; but we incline to the view expressed by more than one Southern Liberal organ— that Sir Joseph Ward cannot with any dignity, or with permanent advantage to his party, continue to hold office under existing conditions. To persist in .holding office without some definite prospect of controlling the country's policy would be only to court defeat and humiliation, and w« believe the Liberals have much to gain, and nothing to lose, by throwing the responsibilities of government for the time being on the shoulders of Mr. Massey. For Mr. Massey can no more command a. working majority in the House as now constituted than Sir Joseph Ward, Snd when Mr. Massey, in turn, has been driven speedily to admit the impracticability of carrying on the administration of the country with a Parliament as now constituted, the time will have to come for another appeal to the peo{>le for an intelligible mandate on cleary defined political issues.'*