The Domonion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1911. THE VICTORY FOR REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1312, 15 December 1911, Page 6

The Domonion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1911. THE VICTORY FOR REFORM.

At the first ballots on Thursday of last week the Ward Government was condemned; at the second ballots jesterday the sentence was put into execution. The position, o£ parties alter the declaration of the poll stands as under: He-form party iji Government " Labour J Independent There arc still three Native to 1)3 contested and they may add to the strength of the Government orthey may not. The Native mcnibei, as a rule, is a fickle person and lie usually wants to be ou the winning side. But at the best the position of the Government is practically hopeless. Of the Independent members Mi:. Atmore is pledged to vote against the Ward Administration on several vital issues of policy, and the attitude of Mi!. Coates, who defeated Mr. Stali.vorthy, can be gathered from his declaration after the poll as published elsewhere. Of the four Labour members none are actually pledged to the Government, while three are more or less antagonistic, namely, Messrs. Yeitch, llobeivisos, and Payne. It will thus be seen that on a no-confidence motion the Government could not expect to escape defeat. No doubt during th-i next few days desperate efforts will be made to "nobble" the Labour vote, and it is impossible to say what sort of bargain may be struck, but even if this vote is secured by the Ward Administration it cannot hope to carry on successfully for any length of time. _ The country 1 lias every reason for congratulation at the downfall of Wardisni. From whatever point of view the situation is regarded the outstanding fact remains that the

pledged followers of the Ward Administration arc in a decided minority in tho new Parliament. They, went to the polls 45 strong; they came from them with their numbers reduced to 32. The Reform party went to the polls with 25 straightout supporters, and comes back with :i~. Here we have in plain figures the reply of tho country to the evils and abuses which have grown up under Wardism. A few days ago the local Ministerial journal published tiro details of the various majorities with which the Continuous Ministry has b ( een returned to office since 1890. They

serve to accentuate the downfall of Wardism and are worth reproducing as follow: Year. Majority. IS'll) S 1593 38 lsoc no l«)!l 32VJO2 21 1803 - « 190 S - In 1011 a majority ot aa is turned into a minority of 5. When he attempted to speak in public last evening Sip. Joseph- AY Ann was howled down, but in a subsequent statement to a little circle of his supporters .he said, in effect, that the decision of the country was not yet clear. The Prime Minister may deceive himself on this point, but he inuSt recog--1 nise that_ tho people have declared against him. The question which the public will be asking to-day is what tho outcome of the elections will be. Sir Joseph Ward says he can be relied on to "do the proper thing. The proper thing from his point of view will no doubt be to endeavour to square -the Labour members, and in order to do this there will probably be a further sacrifice of the principles which Liberalism once stood for. But this will not get the Government out of its troubles. There are members of the party who will not be inclined to yield meekly, and 'when Parliament meets a split is almost inevitable, and some members at present classed as Government are practically certain to desert from the ranks of the Ministerialists. Moreover, it is im-' possible to conceive that the present Ministry of mediocrities would satisfy the Labour members and any change which might be made would be certain to cause trouble. Whichever way the situation is looked at no arrangement of a lasting nature is possible. On the other hand, Mr. Massey may find that there are a sufficient number of the Labour and Independent candidates willing to ensure him an absolute majority for the time being, in which case he may notify the Prime' Minister, and his Excellency the Governor and demand an early session of Parliament to test the question. Wo shall have something to say on this point tomorrow, but in the meantime we must congratulate the country on the downfall of Wardism and the hope which attaches to it of a new era of cleaner and better politics—of government in the people's interest and for the national well-being, not for sectional interests and party ends.