WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 171, 21 July 1928, Page 19

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SAMOA IN PARLIAMENT.

ITERATION AND REITERATION MR. POLSON'S DECISION. (From Our Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, July 19. The discussion following upon the presentation of the commissioners' report upon Sanioan affairs in the House of Representatives on Tuesday was not a particularly edifying exhibition. The Hon. W. Nosworthv, in his capacity of Minister of External Affairs, in asking leave to lay the report on the table of the House, was not in one of his rare conciliatory moods. He seemed, indeed, set upon reviving his old controversy with the Labour Oppositino, and Mr. Holland and his compact little party appeared ready enough to oblige him. A sample of the exchange between the Minister and his critics will give some idea of the dignity to which the discussion soared:— Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East): An opportunity should be given the offenders to appear before a jury. That is the principal feature of Labour's attitude. Mr. Nosworthy: The next election will wipe you up. Mr. W. Parry (Auckland Central): You are too frightened to go to it, anyway. Mr. Nosworthy: Not a bit of it. Mr. Lee: I could tell the honourable gentleman a lot about the next election but it would be no use wasting powder and shot on him. Mr. Nosworthy: It might land on you. Only when the Prime Minister himself intervened did the discussion reach a higher level.

A WEAKENED ATTACK. Under this heading the "Evening Post" in its customary judicial tone disposes of the Labour party's persistent attacks upon the Government's discharge of its obligations in Samoa. ''Members of the Labour party," it says, "were wise to leave their leader a substantial monopoly of the denunciation of the Government's Samoan policy during the recess. They were still wiser to refrain from challenging that policy by the amendment to the Address-in-Reply which would have been the appropriate course if 1 per cent of the mischievous nonsense that he had talked and written had had even a plausible foundation. But to credit the Labour party with this amount of wisdom is not to pay them a very high compliment. There were two beacon lights warning them off the rocks on which their captain seemed determined to wreck the ship, and it is possible that even on his myopic vision the second of these light s had been strong enough to make some impression. . . . Seldom have unjust and cruel chargcs been more completely discredited." There the whole matter may he left to disappear into oblivion as speedily as possible. ACROSS THE BORDER. Mr. W. J. Poison lias been standing so long on the brink of the active political field that the announcement this week of his final determination to cross the border has occasioned little surprise. As a journalist, a farmer, a chairman of a county council, a director of a woollen mill, a Dominion president of tho Farmers' Union, a member of a Royal commission sent abroad to study farmers' finance, and a man of rending find observation, he possesses qualifications which are not to be found in every seat in the House of Representatives. In accepting nomination for the Stratford scat, it is reported from the district, Mr. Poison stated definitely that he was opposed to the present Government, but his attitude would be an> independent one. He pointed out that while at present he was unable to definitely ally himself with any party, he realised that ] co-operation was essential in politics.' He was satisfied there would emergd from the election some party which would give the country a more efficient and representative Government. Ho hoped to be able to support such a party. INDEPENDENCE. Should Mr. Poison succeed in capturing the Stratford seat—and his chances of doing so are said to be particularly good—he will find himself not the only Independent in the new House of Representatives. Mr. Seddon and Mr. Massev both possessed an exceptional ta! r>< for holding their respective parties together; Mr. Seddon in this respect was even a greater diplomat than was his Reform successor. Sir Joseph Ward, on the other hand, allowed Mr. Seddon's majority to slip from his hands just as rapidly as such an advantage could disappear! This meant no personal or political reflection upon Sir Joseph. It was just the absence of the magnetism which makes some men succeed where others fail. It remains to be- seen whether or not Mr. Coates has been more fortunate than Sir Joseph Ward was in this respect. Opinions on the point are divided. It looks fairly certain, however. that the present unwieldy Reform battalion will be materially reduced at the approaching general election. In turn, this is no personal or political reflection upon Mr. Coates. There are few men in politics to-day more popular than is the present Prime Minister, and none more sincerely anxious to serve the countrv. But there is the element of magnetism to be considered, and this at present is not prominent in the Reform Leader's equipment.