PRIVATE CAUCUS.

North Otago Times, Volume CV, Issue 13934, 17 July 1917, Page 6

PRIVATE CAUCUS.

NEW DEVELOPMENT IN THE . HOUSE. " J .ili . A POWERFUL UNDERGROUND \ INFLUENCE. .i WELLINGTON, July .14, '• A remarkable change has taken place under the surface of things Parliamentary. Jt is due entirely to the. absence' for formal party politics. An Opposi-' t-ion appears, to.be ,an •for.jhe .efficient, conduct, of public afjftif&M.t!1 .!* fowl Opposition has. "beeii driven underground, so to speak, by the National Cabinet compact. But the underground opposition is a very definite tiling, and has been extremely' active this session,

Under pre-war conditions the franlc discussion at party caucus meetings sirvedhto tap tlio Government in tune with the mood of the majority, : Now there cannot well lie ft party caucus—the whole House is technically (except for a few Labour members) in the Government Party. Driven out of this line of influencing the Cabinet, members have taken to holding thoir own private gatherings. They have lined up, not according to old party distinctions, but in 'accordance with their mutual interest?. The most important phase of this pri-vate-member caucus movement is the concerted action of country members, Reform and Liberal, against the suggested export tax. Not a word has beeu uttered' • publicly, ■ but the Government knows already by what had happened at jwrtftiit gatherings where there were no reporters that any official move for an export tax would cause the wreck of the already labouring ship of Sh/(e. Though we will hear strong advocacy, of an export tax—and it has influential backing outsidiSy the House—my knowledge of lobby happenings leads me to confidently predict that the idea is politically dead. The shipping merger was another subject for private-member caucus. In this case the country members found friends among city representatives, and the decjfion of their non-party caucus will carry great weight with the Government.

Though the butter-fat levy is highly controversial, and no city members countenance the agitation for its abolition, twenty-four members, combined privately to put up a case against the levy, and it is well understood in the lobby that as more than half the Hous# is "solid" on this question the Governi nient, if it wishes to hold have to find a way out somehow a'uai" drop the levy.