POLITICAL NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8236, 6 September 1915, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

(From Our Parliamentary Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, September 3

The Financial Debate up to its present stage has been more interesting than the bare report of the proceedings might have led a reader to believe. The speeches delivered during the last four or five days have forced on the attention of the House 'and the Ministry -•the point mentioned already in \ these notes, that a National Governi ment cannot command any unquestioning following. Members have not all been as bluntly outspoken as Mr Hornsby, who said last night that the formation of the National Government had broken party ties and left each member free to speak and vote according to his own opinions. But they have made it clear enough in their, speeches that they felt an entirely new sense of freedom in debate. The Budget has been discussed not in a party spirit, which would have constrained one side to praise and the other side to condemn, but in a, frankly critical spirit. If the tone of the debates can be regarded as furnishing a fair indication of what is going to happen when the actual Bills are before the House, then the Minister for Finance and the Government generally are going to have some troublesome days. It should not be imagined that the now spirit of freedom abroad in_ the House implies in any sense the failure of the National Ministry. The new Government, indeed, has proved a brilliant success so far as Parliament can see. A report was published the other day in a southern newspaper to the effect that a serious difference of opinion had occured in the Cabinet, and that the Liberal Ministers, headed by I Sir Joseph Ward, had retired to their own quarters before a basis of agreement was found. This suggestion of friction seems to have had no better foundation , than a friendly, discussion of one of the compromises that are inevitable in a ( two-party Cabinet, and all the indications go to show that the Ministers are working together ,in a thoroughly good spirit. The National Ministry is doing all that it was ever expected to do along that line. But ■when all that is admitted, we come back to the fact that the Government has got to match its procedure to new conditions. It cannot command a majority in the House by cracking a party whip. The kerosene duty is going to test the situation. The intention of a majority of the members of the House is to vote for the removal of that duty from the new taxation proposals. A Government constituted in the normal way would crack the party whip when such an interference with its powers was threatened, and its followers would have to come to heel in'order to save the Ministry from "defeat." But the National Ministry does not appear too possess any coercive power beyond the ability of Ministers themselves to carry the House with them by argument or pleading. That, at any rate, is the view held by members at the present time. The situation rejoices the hearts of those Radicals who have long been lamenting the concentration of political powor in the hands of the Ministry of the day and the subordination of principles to "party exigencies. _ . In the meantime, the Minister of Finance (Sir Joseph Ward) has,no reason to be dissatisfied with the manner in which his Budget has been received either inside or outside of the House. He may,have to accept modification in details, but the broad features, of his Statement are going to stand and provide the basis of the Dominion's financial structure for the war period. One hears on both sides of the Chamber regrets that this bold attempt. to place the finances on a "war footing" was not initiated a year ago.. • ..,