WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 174, 25 July 1928, Page 12

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE SESSION. EARLY PROROGATION. A LARGE PROGRAMME (From Our Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON. July j::. Ministers i iiemsel ves ami members of their pnrsy haw their hearts bent upon the se-si'>n ot L'a rliament closing not later than tli.' tir-t week in October. Mr. C'oatc;, and )1 i~ colleagues realist" they havp a harder tight before them than they had three years au r o, and the rank nii'l tile understand they will share their leader's difficulties. This i> not to say tlat the Reform party is apprehensive of being ejected from the Treasury Benches this year by the adverse swing of the political pendulum. It is inconceivable that any shuffling of the cards could leave it with a minority in the new House. But if its huge majority of fifty odd were cut down to nine or ten it micrlit find itself in an extremely difficult position. So far it has been held together by weight of numbers, rather than by unanimity of thought and sentiment. and never has had to face a united Opposition of any magnitude. The test of its resources in this direction still is to come. Unity Against Division. The desire of Ministers to get to the constituencies as early as possible is natural enough. The Reformers, to begin with, are much better prepared for an appeal to the electors than are the other likely parties to the fray. The Labourites, of course, always are ready for an election, keeping themselves before the public year in and year out: but a session of Parliament offers them rr.anv opportunities for advertising themselves and their wares, and, knowing the value of publicity, they will be in no hurry to get away from Wellington. The Nationalists and the Uniteds still are coquetting with one another and with the constituencies, and at the moment seem to be in no particular hurry about anything. Sir Jr.sculi Ward, who still, it. seems, may describe himself with propriety as the "Party of Onp," will not leave London on his return journey until to-morrow, and cannot take his seat in the House before the end of next month. Obviously the Reformers' game is to act while the other parties are thinking of doing so. Prosperity and Taxation. Just how Ministers are going to get rid of Parliament in the first week of October, however, remains to be seen. The Prime Minister is pledged to give a "fair run" to the Licensing Bill, the Bible-in-Schools Bill, the Summer Time Bill and a number of other bills of equal consequence, and the Minister of Finance will not be ready until two or three weeks hence with his Budget, which this year, if members are not too deeply engrossed in their electioneering, will be very eagerly examined and discussed. Ministers were proclaiming from one end of the Dominion to the other during the recess that the financial outlook had much improved during the year and that there were signs of returning prosperity ahead. Words to a similar effect were rut into the mouth of his Exccllency the Governor-General in the Speech he delivered at the opening of Parliament, nnd they were reiterated by Ministers during the debate on the Address-in-Reply. Parliament will not be justified in proroguing until these glad tidings are reflected in a reduction of taxation. Daylight Saving. The Summer Time Bill has been given precedence among the bigger measures that are exercising the minds of the public, and its fate may be decided one way or another during the present week. "While concentrating their main efforts on obtaining summer time as a permanent institution," says the "Dominion" this morning, "Mr. T. K. Sidey and his supporters are not very sanguine as to their prospects of success. They are hopeful, however, that Parliament will agree to another trial, and they will probably suggest that the period should be two summers, this period leaving them one summer to concede as a compromise if such should be necessary." There is no question on either side of the controversy that a majority of the electors are in favour of summer time, but the Prime Minister holds strongly that the farmers in a matter of this kind must receive first consideration and that a referendum would not disclose the real merits of the position. On this point, the House may be closely divided.