PARTY FUSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 96, 24 April 1931, Page 12

PARTY FUSION.

LEADERSHIP THE BAR?

POSITION IN PARLIAMENT. NIGGARDLY REFORM ATTITUDE. HAURAKI ELECTION TEST. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") • WELLINGTON, this day. Ifc is learned that strong pressure is i>eing put on th* Government and Iteform parties by interests outside Parliament to co-operate in measures to eope with the present serious financial crisis. Close observers of what has been happening in Parliament have very little belief in the possibility of fusion. It is an open secret that Government feupporters have been extremely surprised at the grudging nature of the support given by the Reform party in the House to the Prime Minister's financial measures, an attitude which makes it extremely doubtful whether the full programme necessary for balancing the Budget can be put through. The next instalment is taxation, which has been deferred till the main session. The feeling prevails that what prevents the closer co-operation of two parties, whose methods for dealing with the emergency are substantially the same, is the question whether the combined forces should be led by the Prime Minister or by the Leader of the Opposition. Such a delicate and difficult matter cannot apparently He resolved by mutual discussions, because t<ie two parties are held apart to-day by the United membres" of what they deem the niggardly assistance so far given under the direction of Mr. Coates. Those who hold this opinion feel that the Hauraki by-election is timely, as it gives an opportunity to bring the difficulty right out into the open, and to make the Leadership a test issue, on which this section, at least, of the electorate of the Dominion maj give a decision. The Prime Minister has not hesitated to present an unpalatable but a necessarv programe of financial rehabilitation, but he has had to fight rrery inch of the way. and he is not by any meaiis at the end of his task. The- most serious responsibility, that of imposing additional taxation, lies before him. and that test will come early next session. He has already declared, without equivocation, that if Parliament will not approve what he considers to be the vitally necessary measures to balance the Budget for the current financial Tear, he and his Government cannot continue to carry the responsibility of the finances of the Dominion. Under these circumstances many supporters of the Government fire anxious to take thfe opportunity afforded hy the Hauraki by-election of asking the electors to return a. candidate ° who 'will; j, niidpri ke give •whole-hearted support, to the Prime Minister in his endeavours to maintain the financial stability of the Dominion.