Manawatu Daily Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1925.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2309, 30 November 1925, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1925.

Still a Liberal * Sir Joseph Ward lias returned to Wellington from his election campaign in excellent health and spirits, and with many pleasant memories of the contest from which ho emerged triumphant. Sir Joseph thinks there could be no doubt of the magnitude or the significance of Mr Coates’s majority. Ho said Mr Coates’s majority, rather than the Reform majority because the contest was made purely a personal one—very wisely in the circumstances- —and the victory was complete. At the election of 1905, Just twenty years before, the Liberals under the masterful leadership of Mr Seddon, secured sixty seats, the Reformers fifteen, and live members were returned as Independents. That was the largest majority ever secured by a party in the New Zealand Parliament and Mr Coates’s majority was the next largest. Whether or not such large majorities were good things for the parties to which they fell, Sir Joseph was not prepared to say. He admitted, however, that the big majority to which he succeeded in 1900 —Mr Seddon having passed away between the general election and the first session of the new Parliament —had proved something of an “embarrassment of riches.” Disproportionate strength In Parliament did not always make for good or comfortable government. In a House of tighty members a majority of ten or twelve was large enough for any Ministry. “But even with a majority of 80 or 81, os my friend the Prime Minister appears to have, there is still room for the activities of a capr-blc Opposition.” Sir Joseph was not disposed to discuss the composition of the present Opposition. Fusion Fusion of the kind that had been discussed during the last session of Parliament, Sir Joseph thought, would receive little attention from the new House. It would be ridiculous to expect a Prime Minister with a huge majority over the two other parties to open ’ negotiations with one o! them, for the purpose of strengthening his own position. He thought the

Liberals had j)layed, their part In the previous negotiations with dignity and perfect good faith. Such credit as could be gained from the incident remained with them. But in the new House with at least half of his colleagues thinking themselves entitled to ministerial rank, Mr Coates could not afford to cast favours across the floor of the House. But there was not the slightest need for the Liberals to be down-hearted over the position. They had before them the splendid example of Mr Massey who laboured in the Reform Opposition for 'eighteen years and then mounted the Treasury benches to administer, much to his credit, the Liberal policy. As for himself, Sir Joseph hoped to have many opportunities to help along the cause of Liberalism under whatever name it might appear. Ho would remain a Liberal, preferring the old title to the new, but he would sit •with the Nationalists and co-operate with them in every effort they might make for the well-being and advancement of the country-

DifficultieS Ahead Though Sir Joseph regards fusion as out of the question in the altered clrumstances brought about by the general election, he sees tn the financial outlook reason forn!ue utmost forbearance and co-operation between the parties. No one will suspect him of being a pessimist; indeed ho is popularly counted among the most cheery of optimists; but he sees trouble before all the large borrowing countries in the not far distant future. Money, ho believes, Is not going to be simply dear; it is going to bo unavailable, and New Zealand has built up all its plans for the future on the assumption that money is going to be abundant and cheap. With a serious crisis looming ahead the Dominion Is committing Itself to a development policy of enormous dimensions and counting upon its products remaining Indefinitely at the present high prices. Nothing, Sir Joseph thinks, is more certain than an .11 round drop in prices in the near future, which will place the Dominion’s balance of trade on the wrong side. The country has been living on high prices ever since the inflation occasioned by the w'ar and has made no adequate provision against the rainy day in the shape of increased production. "This is no time,” Sir Joseph said as he passed on to an engagement, "for idle party squabbling."