FUSION NEGOTIATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19060, 3 July 1925, Page 8

FUSION NEGOTIATIONS.

FINALITY NOT YET REACHED. REPORTED DIFFICULTIES. PERSONNEL OF THE CABINET. OLD POLITICAL SUPPORTERS. [BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL REPORTER. ] WELLINGTON, Thursday. There was a brief sitting of the fusion conference this afternoon. Mr. ,J. A. Young, loader of the Reform delegation, said afterwards that ho had no information to communicate to the press. A meeting of the Liberal Party was held lator in the afternoon. In this case also 110 ollicial report was issued. It is understood, however, that the assembled party received the report of its fusion delegation, but decided to take no action pending consultation with the leader of the party, Mr. T. M. Wilford, who is at present confined to his homo by illness. No Reform caucus was held. Thoso outsido party ranks . aro still speculating about the course of the negotiations, but there is a well-founded report curreut that the prospects of an agreement aro more remote than they were a few days ago. It is believed that somo Liberals at first were ready for fusion on fairly easy terms, but that later they suddenly stiffened their demands. The bono of contention is said to be Cabinet construction, involving tho gift of portfolios to certain Liberals. The Reform Party, according to this version of tho matter, aro not averse to a reasonable arrangement, but will do nothing to disturb the present Cabinet. Other trouble is in tho electorates whero the Government is unwilling to sacrifico its old political supporters. Naturally enough .fusion cropped up several times during the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives to-day. Two Labour speakers and several interjectors took it as a challenge to tho third party in the House, and intimated that Labour was ready for anything. Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Christchurc.il East) led off by attacking fusion as a useless political manoeuvre and declaring that whether it cumo to finality or not Labour would win at the coming election. Mr. P. A. de la Perrelle (Awarua), from tho Liberal side, barely touched on the subject, but merely echoed the sentiments expressed yesterday by Mr. T. K. Sidey. He said he favoured the elective executive, by w.hich he said the best men in the House could be appointed to office. " This is a time," he said, " when party politics are a curse to the country. The call should'*bo national and not party aims, measures, not men."