FUSION PROPOSAL

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 182, 1 May 1931, Page 8

FUSION PROPOSAL

/ No Call for Urgency REFORM’S ATTITUDE Question Being Considered The Reform Party is considering the implications of the Prime Minister’s offer on behalf of the United Party to form a National Party. The Loader of the Reform Party, lit. Hon. J. G. Coates, stated yesterday that the proposal was important, and with the session over, there was no urgent call for an immediate decision. His party, therefore, proposed to take time to consider the whole matter in all its aspects. A public statement would be made in due course. As far as the Prime Minister is concerned he will do nothing further until the Reform Party makes a statement. He attended the opening of the new wing at Massey Agricultural College yesterday, and although he will be in Wellington to-day he will give no further consideration to the fusion issue in the meantime. It is his intention at the moment to spend the week-end at his home at Cheviot. Interest attaches to the forthcoming by-election for the Hauraki seat, rendered vacant by the death of Mr. A. W. Hall, a Reform member. So far there are only a Reform and a Labour candidate in the field, and it is understood that the United Party deliberately withheld its nomination in view of the offer of fusion contemplated by it. It is considered that the party will take no steps in the direction of choosing a candidate until the Reform Party makes its promised statement in reply to the Prime Minister. A close student of the political situation who has exceptional opportunities of obtaining information from all over the Dominion writes stating that in his judgment a general election at the present time with three parties in the I field would return the following members: Reform, 36; United, 13; Labour, 25; Independents, 6. ■ ■*» ' FUSION SUPPORTED Public Meeting Planned PALMERSTON N. VIEWS Dominion Special Sebvick. Palmerston North, April 30. The Prime Minister’s fusion proposals were favourably commented upon at a special meeting of the. council of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce held this morning, when the council decided to convene a special meeting, to which al! interested will be invited, in order that the suggestions may be fully discussed, with a view to urging all parties in Parliament to assist the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes to form a National Party. “My views are that at the present time it is essential that any small party differences between the United and Reform Parties should be dropped, and that undivided attention be turned to bringing the country through the difficult times on purely national lines,” said Mr. M. H. Oran, the chairman. Continuing, the speaker said that this was the only way in which the better elements of the two leading parties could be combined. Mr. G. H. Bennett stated that the proposals appeared to him as being the most disinterested move in the political history of the Dominion, and a move which has enhanced Mr. Forbes’s prestige. If three parties were allowed to contest the next general election a state of chaos might eventuate. “The Prime Minister,” said Mr. M. A. Eliott, “has always shown himself willing to place all his cards on the table and face vital issues, a factor that has been of great assistance to the partv and to the Government generally.”

The resolution to convene the public meeting was carried on the motion of the chairman.

Before the meeting terminated Mr. J. A. Nash. M.P., intimated that it would he some days before the Reform Party would make known its decision. There was a great deal to be considered, and there was more in the suggested fusion than appeared on the surface.