WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 162, 11 July 1925, Page 17

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE FUSION PROPOSAL. AN IMPATIENT STALWART. "SILLIEST PROPOSAL EVER SUGGESTED." (Pv Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, July 1). "Now thnt fusion is .stone dead and only waiting decent burial. I don't lliilld saying I tliink it the silliest, proposal t hilt, ever has been seriously discussed hy a body of sane men. - ' So said to-day a" Ballanee-Seddon stalwart, with a warm regard for Mr. Massey. who might | have been in Parliament at any time .luring the last forty years had he seen his way to offer his services to any one of a dozen constituencies. "I don't believe for a moment," continued this veteran of the strenuous nineties, "that the idea ever commended itself to the strong men of the House. Fusion is the suggestion of the timid souls who talk of socialism of the evil kind, communism, bolshevism, and red ruin of every kind, as if these perils were at our very doors. These timid souls have lost their heads as well as their hearts and scheming politicians have seen their way to turn their fears to account. Why. bless your soul, tinLabour party to-day is not half as •red' as tlie Liberal party appeared to be to the good old Conservatives of thirty-four years ago, when -Tohn Ballance" proposed to impose a land tax in place of a property tax and to 'burst up' some of the big estates. And yet Mr. Massey. the lineal descendant of ( those dear' old Tories, before he died, : all honour to him. had become as much j of a Socialist as Ballance or Seddon ever | had been. It is only the small man that enn remain small in tlie face of incontrovertible facts.'' What an Opposition! '•But it is fusion you asked mc about," this authority recalled. "WeH, get it out of your head that the Labour party j is striving to bring about a state of ; affairs in this country rather worse than | the. excesses which marked one stage of | the French revolution, aud what possible I reason have we for abandoning every j other progressive effort in order to block j Ihe way of Mr. H. E. Holland. Mr. Peter Fraser arid the other .strangely simple \ members of the House who imagine they j have discovered a shorter cut to the mil- | lennium than any of the rest of us have - , i Then if we rid ourselves of the Bolshevik I nightmare what possible advantage." I this veteran asked, "can we obtain from fusion? Stability! Yes. for a session possibly. But think of the Government j side in the House with sixty-three votes | and the Opposition side with seventeen. That is the Reformers and the Liberals . on one side and the Labour members on j the other. Is there any record in any j constitutionally governed country in the | world where such a distribution of voting power was productive of good results/ It would be a Government without an j Opposition, without any effective eriti- j cism and absolutely without any check. | Such conditions might be tolerated by the countr for a session, but by that | time the moral of the House would have | assumed something of the atmosphere of j a bear-garden and its continuance would be intolerable. The only approach to such an arrangement we have had in this i country was the National Cabinet during I the war, which always had the saving graces of necessity and patriotism at its j back, but still was intolerable to a j majority of its members long before it was dissolved. It is a political axiom ' that a good Opposition is only a little loss necessary to the welfare of a country than is a good Government, and yet during the past month we have had members of Parliament fervently urging there should be no Opposition at all." j The Alternative. j "The position is plain enough for | everyone to see." the protestant said in conclusion, "and it should present no difficulties to people who will accept it as it stands. The Reformers are in possession of the reins of Government. They have as a leader a young man of many parts, frank, earnest and singularly popular, and be ought to have a chance to prove himself. It may be that the name of the dominant "party in the House for the time being requires changing. It would be a good move on the part of Mr. Coates to change it, jiarticularly if ho could at the same time broaden the policy of his party and make it acceptable to a larger number of progressive people. This would be no reflection upon his dead chief, who always was a little ahead of his policy and his*party, and would have been numbered among the 'Seven Devils of Socialism,' had he entered Parliament with tho keener vision and wider outlook he developed in Jus later years. But the Liberal Opposition must remain while the process of evolution on the other side goes on, and in good time the amalgamation which seems wholly uiinetessary and indeed highly perilous at the present time, may become practicable .and desirable in the best interests of the country. Meanwhile •iJJI b( ?„ ho P ed tlmt tho approaching election will give the country a Parliament capable of dealing wisely with the front bICmS b ? whicl > jt Will be con- I