QUESTION OF FUSION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 115, 19 May 1925, Page 8

QUESTION OF FUSION

AN INTERMEDIARY SUGGESTED,

(BI TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL TO THE POST.)

AUCKLAND, This Day. . The question of fusion is discussed by the "New Zealand Herald." The paper remarks: "Fusion, if fusion be desired, will not be achieved merely by saying that it is wanted. ■ Negotiations would necessarily take a little time, and there would inevitably be a certain amount of manoeuvring for advantage. Politics being politics, each side would wish to get the best terms possible. Obviously, iv a matter of this kind the first steps would bo tho most difficult, and circumstances boing what they are, the best way of beginning, assuming that there is force behind the suggestions tentatively discussed, would probably be to find some intermediary in a .sense independent of politics altogether. -To find anyone wholly independent would no doubt be impossible. It should be sufficient to select a man who 13 riot in the firing line, or who has not recently been there. Sir James Gunson comes to mind as being very well equipped for the delicate Usk. " Mr. VV. D.

Hunt is another who might be asked to undertake it. No doubt further names could easily be suggested. The utmost care, judgment, and tact would have to be exercised, for even if a real desire to come together existed on both sides, there would still be a wide area of debatable ground to cover before union was effected. Little more than that can be said at present, for the scheme is still in a very nebulous condition. One feature standing out clearly is that plans for ending the present unsatisfactory condition of parties again cast upon a large section of the House the duty of reaching a decision of great moment. The two parties nearest in affinity can either compose their differences and present a 'united front against the third, or they can continue playing the game of political cross-purposes in Parliament, leaving the real opponents of both to profit in the country at election lime."