THE GOVERNMENT POSITION SECURE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1012, 2 November 1917, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT POSITION SECURE.

There have been, as wo hail sixitl, rumours ol dissensions in the Cabinet and of impending splits. Advanced Liberals in the iion.se and out of/ R, including the Labour members, and the newspapers supporting them, have, very unfairly, attacked the Reform section of the Cabinet, and ascribed the failings and shortcomings ol the Ministry as a whole to the alleged reactionary spirit of .Reform members. Rut, while there may have been occasional conflicts of opinion—and in a Coalition Cabinet the. reconciling ol divergent vows is not always possible—the two leaders have worked together m perfect amity, loyally .supporting each other, except in cases such as l lie exemption ol teachers Under the Lxpeditioiian Lories Ame ml men t Hill, in which they agreed to differ. A certain amount ol pin-pricking has gone on, bat it has been rather Irom the outside, than within the Cabinet, and it has emanated almost solely Irom the disgruntled members ol the House, who feel that the party truce has lelt them stranded, with no hope ol .Ministerial preleimeiil. Sir Joseph Ward’s very explicit statenK'iit in regard to the friendly relationships existing between his colleagues and himself, shows that the subtle attacks made upon the Cabinet, and the attempts to sow dissension amongst its members, have tailed, dhe one rock upon which they might have split, had, Sir Joseph said, been discussed by Cabinet in all its aspects. “There had been no friction, no rows, and no fighting, as was alleged outside, and the people who spread these rumours’could only have done so “for the purpose ol making a difficult position more difficult.” On the six o’clock closing business, again, the fact that Ministers, after supporting Cabinet’s original compromise of 8 o’clock closing, divided upon the Prime .Minister’s acceptance ol the ■ earlier hour, was spoken ol as indicating friction over that business. lint Sir Joseph has explained that in taking the stand he did. lie was influenced only by revenue considerations and, to the Minister responsible for the finances of the country, that is all important. The one regrettable feature of the session is that the usual “end of session rush” was again in evidence, although the tendency to “legislation by exhaustion.” was neither so pronounced nor so vicious as it proved to be under the Seddonian Administration. The day. j we trust, will come, when Ministers will have all their important measures ready for presentation to Parliament during the first few weeks of the session, so that the country may have an opportunity of studying them at leisure. Would it not ho possible for the National Government to set the example to its successor when it next meets Parliament?