WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2478, 19 October 1922, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

——mi <m ■ CHANGING SIDES—LEST WORSE THINGS HAPPEN. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, October IS. Mr Vigor Brown did not wait for the end of the sess.*-» nor even for the dissolution of the present Parliament to give effect to his determination .to change sides in the party game. Yesterday he crossed the floor of the House and definitely allied himself with the Reformers. The usual proceeding in such cases is, of course, for the member withdrawing his allegiance from one party and transferring it to another, either to resign his seat and seek re-election or to fulfil his pledges to his constituents till he is released by the expiry of his term of office. But Mr Brown's precipitation seems to have been due to the fact that another Reform candidate was offering for the Napier seat, and that the sitting member had to give some tangible evidence of the fidelity to his new love to secure the Government's endorsement. To do Mr Brown justice, it must be said that his party predilections always have been personal rather than political, and that in the absence of Sir Joseph Ward there has been nothing to attach him to the Liberal side of the House.

THE REFORMERS' AIM. Mr Brown's renunciation of his alle. giance to the Liberal Party is not the only indication of the Reformers' desire to administer the coup de grace to their old opponents at the approaching general election. Mr Brown had to choose between changing sides and facing the opposition of a Reform candidate with the certainty of the Labour aspirant to the seat succeeding. He by no means has made his own election sure by the step he has taken, but he has materially improved his chances in the contest. Mr Leonard Isitt has sought refuge from the impending storm in a less ingenuous arrangement. He is to remain on the Liberal side of the House, but on a "no confidence" vote he is to stand by the Reform Government, unless he is satisfied the Liberals have a sufficient majority in the new Parliament to be ent.rely independent of Labour support. The Liberals' complete independence of Labour is one of the highly improbable results of the election, and Mr Isitt's compact with Mr Massey simply means that the vote of the member for Christchurch North will be his own only when it is not wanted by the Government. THE TAXATION BILL. The Land and Income Tax Bill passed through its final stages in the House on Monday night without amendment. Mr George Mitchell, the member for Wellington South, who is able to present a case for the financial and commercial communities with the same understanding and facility as he presents a case for the unemployed and the uoorly-housed worker, made a strong appeal for the reduction of the company maximum incom« tax to 5/- in the £, but Mr Massey, while admitting that excessive taxation was retarding enterprise, crippling industry, and aggravating the financial stringency, said he could not in the meantime give the companies the relief to which they clearly were entitled. K the reduction suggested by Mr Mitchell were made, the Prime Minister said, the taxation of people with incomes between £3OO and £2OOO a year would have to be doubled. Dr. Newman who is retiring from politics this year, seemed to have a better grasp of the technicalities of the subject than had most of the other speakers, but the overwhelming majority behind the Government easily gave Mr Massey his own way. PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT. The Public Works Statement and Estimates presented in the House last night are judged mainly according to the party leanings of the critics. The estimated expenditure for the year l? £4 907,223, some £300,000 less than the amount expended last year, and it is generally admitted that the monev has been distributed in a fashion that will do no harm to the Government's election prospects. The "Dominion" this morning regrets that the Minister has not seen his way to push on the Hiley policy, which included the provision of adequate railway station accommodation at Wellington and does not hold the Government blameless In the matter. "The war, of course, was responsible for inevitable delay," it says, referring to this and other pressing needs, "but it seems to be beyond excuse that these works should still be proceeding ai a snail's pace. The effect is to lower the efficiency of the railways in existing conditions, and to make it impossible that they should deal economically with the increased volume ot traffic which will offer as times improve " The morning journal speaks with the candour which belongs to the big battalions.