THE CONFERENCE AND THE SESSION,

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 519, 28 May 1909, Page 6

THE CONFERENCE AND THE SESSION,

_Soiie publicity.has been given' to the opinions of memberaVof Parliament upon .tho Government's .anxiety to postpone the 1 arliamontary session if tho Prime Minister attends the Naval Conference. I'rom those Opinions wo gather that while the general view is favourable to. tho representation of Now Zealand by its first:citizen, there aro no roasons forth-, coming in support of the theory that theimportant domestic business of this country, should bo postponed. The Government's friends. and tho Ministerialist press aro devoting all their ingenuity to ■obscuring the true position of affairs. We read, for example, such statements as this; "Wo are quite confident that Parliament will lay aside parochial considerations at this orisisi and send forth tho Prime Minister fully armed on Mb Imperial mission." 'Blameless in itself, that sentiment is put forward in support of the proposal, that Parliament should not daro to sit in' tho absence of the Prime Minister. Lot us be quite clear. The .PRIME. Minister, if he assures Parliament that tho interests of New Zealand and of the Empire requiro him to attend the Conferenco in person, will have littlo difficulty in obtaining Parliament's approval. Parliament may require to know why Mr. Hall-Jones cannot vary the monotony of.'his offlco routine by acting as New Zealand's representative, but if tbe ; Prime .Minister can show Parliathat ho himself should be our representative—and wo believo ho can show Parliament some good roasons on tho point—Parliament will not hesitate about saying, "Go, by all mcanß." : When the Prime Minister, however, has gained his point in this respect, and proceeds to say that Parliament must as a consequence adjourn until the beginning qf October, we are fully confident that 'Parliament, if it has any sense of its duty as .a Parliament, will "We see no reason, Why we should adjourn; on tho contrary, we v think'th'at your presence at the- Conference is another strong reason why wo should proceed with our session. Wo cannot agree that the necossitios of the Empire require us to adjourn, and we feel that the necessities of Now. Zealand requiro us to go soberly and soriously to Work. Moreover,: it .will be of great advantage to tho Empire and to Now Zealand to have us hero while tho Conference is sitting, since we could thus rccoivo and exchange advice with our representative." The PmiiE Minister, however, has said that unless Parliament agrees to adjourn ho will not attend the/Conference. That is to say, greatly as, according to him, the needs of tho Empire require his personal attendance.in London, he is qnito prepared [ to subordinate tha nradu o! too Empire