AUSTRALIAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1682, 25 May 1904, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN AFFAIRS.

GRAVE AIND GAY. ([From Our Own Correspondent.) l .(SYDNEY, May 14. WILL ' THERE BE A COALITION P The bombshell which has been manufaotiired with such secrecy in subterv ■ ranean political workshops was fired last Monday night bjy Mr G. H. Reid, erstwhile leader of his Majesty’s Opposition. in the House of Representatives. *'Reid boldly announced to an audi-

_ ,ence at .the Mosman Town. Hall that he intended to make overtures to Mr l>eapfi, kin with a view to forming a coalition, ; 'and thereby “dishing the Whigs,” or, in other words, the Labour pai’ty. • Curiously enough, on the very same , • evening Mr Deakin, in Melbourne, was A reiterating his conviction . that the

three-party system was to be abolished vin the; interests of representative government. The neophyte .might attribute this simultaneous exposition of policy in (Sydney and Melbourne to that much maligned entity, the long arm of [coincidence. But the experienced onlooker realises that Mr 'Reid’s outburst of frankness at Mosman and .Mr Deakin’s eloquent and dignified protests in Melbourne were both parts of a grand harmonious whole—the long-expected coalition' bombshell; the existence of which' was the more strongly believed in on every hand the more strenuously ; it was denied. mwmY : j

Of. course, Mr J. C. Watson, the first - Labour Prime Minister known to the !. history .of constitutional government, affects to make light of the prospects •t of ;the combination - against him. But S some;of his henchmen, notably Mi - Ma-

hon, ah ex-journalist, of Sydney and < now a member of the Commonwealth '-. Ministry, are very bitter indexed against - the alleged unscruuulous-

ness land ingratitude, of the leaders of

: the ' coalescing parties. The intriguers > and the wire-pullers - are working overtime,: and ‘ several distracted members of the Reidite and the Deakinite parties are reported to be still unable to ' make, up: their minds whether it would ..'or would not be to .their advantage to. ..desert to the. standard of Labour. Bubonic rats are not the only kind of “rats’ J in Australia .j ust now, but after ' all, there must, often be a cei’tain amount of rat-catching in the process of Cabinet-making. There were, many ■f btrong men before Agamemnon, and there were many Parliamentary rats before the irresolute tails of the Reid-

- ite and the Deakinite factions.. “Ha! Do I hear the squeak of the 1 trapped rat?” shouted Mr, iShiels, savagely, on one occasion- in - the Victorian . Parliainent- when Mr W. T.- Carter, who had • crossed .the floor . for the good of His health, rapped out an exasperating ini terjection; m“No; you hear the bay of ’ .the Bulldog,” was the stentorian retort . of .Mr Carter, who rejoiced in the know- . ledge that;, when" the inevitable diviv;sion: arrived he would be found round-ing-up the majority sheep and not the minority goats. Peace to his memory. '[■ He is now lecturing for Mr Chamberlain’s preferential scheme, in England. THE LEADERS’ TERMS. - Of. course, the terms of the alliance between Mr Reid and Mir Deakin are arousing widespread 'curiosity. It is - ‘generally agreed that Mr Reid must consent to sink the fiscal issue. There must bo no attempt to alter tlio tariir during this or the next Parliament. That is a “sine qua non” with Mr Deakin, and although the 'freetraders of New South Wales are angrily protesting that Mr Reid has no mandate to abandon tlie freetrado cause, most people see : that the only way to ensure the harmonious.; co-operation of both sides or the coalition is to exclude tanmsm H altogether from the joint policy. : f Meanwhile. Mr Watson is showing -great powers as a strategist. He is to. propound, his, policy oh the 18th but 4::? .already a good deal of it has loukod out. xFor. instance, tHO.y amondmont in tlie Arbitration Bill, which caused all the trouble is net to be brought down to ParUament again. Mr Watson, it is said, will- bring down a new Bill making "' no reference to the t yexed- question or placing State Civil servants under the ; jurisdiction of sir Federal Arbitration. Court. But if a dispute arises, then the High Court will he asked to.decide whq- ; then State Civil servants can constitu- - tiOnally be brought under the provisions of the arbitration legislation or not. That is h clever, evasion of the difficulty, and it is. designed so . as to r waverers from the Reidites and the who'would be ; unable to. support Mr Watson if he persisted in the < course which ho pursued, so tenaciously, • and which brought him at last to the Treasury benches. “ MR WATSON’S CHANCES T •' HOPELESS. , But when it comes to Parliamentary

manoeuvring, Mr Watson can have no more chance against Mr Reid and Mr % Deakin than a clever hoy with a catapult would have against Togo and Kamimura. It is generally believed that Mr Watson’s Labour Ministry will be dissipated into its primordial atoms at the tingle of the first division bell. If it survives the ordeal of meeting ’ the House, it is expected to make a determined effort to lb: the -:i; of

the Federal capital. As the of Representatives has fixed upon Tumut and the Senate has fixed upon Bombala, and Sir John Forrest has fixed upon Dalgety, and important factions are fighting tooth and nail for Carcoar, Garland and Lyndhurst, it is evident that Mr Watson will have a task here that will tax his skill and energy hardly less than the Arbitration Bill itself. POLITICAL EXPOSURES.

It is not often that the ugly word corruption has been bandied about in Australian political circles. * But the issues raised in the case of Dr Montague, representing a Canadian insurance society, have, been watched with the closest*attention because the name. of Sir Alexander Peacock, an ex-Pre-mier of Victoria, has been mixed up with the matter of complaint. Mr Justice Hood, a Judge of the Victorian Supreme Court Bench, has just completed his investigation of the facts, and has furnished his report, which, while it is presumably all that Sir Alexander Peacock deserves, is assuredly not all that he desires.

Mr Justice Hood discovered, inter alia, that Dr Montague handed Sir Alexander Peacock the sum of £SO in bank-notes for his “party fund.” Sir Alexander Peacock took the money, and as there were no elections in progress at the time, put it into his private banking account.; For a long time he was unable to explain to Mr Justice Hood, who pressed him very insistently upon the point, what eventually became of Dr Montague’s generous donation. At last, however, Sir Alexander Peacock recollected. He explained to the Judge that an impecunious member of Parliament of the name of Spiers applied to him as head of the Goverv ment for a loan. -.And he accordingly sent Dr Montague’s £*so- to Mr 'Spiers. The loan had never been repaid. The explanation could hardly have been a source o'f unmixed gratification to Mr Spiers, whose name received a mbslfc unwelcome advertisement, hutlie ecu Id console himself, like “Tom Brown” after being roasted by the bully FI ashman • on account of the Derby sweep-money, that “the tizzy was safe, anyway.” Mr Spiers had to take the roasting, but, at any* rate, he had had the £SO.

Mr Jusltioe Hood's decision was torse "and luminous. He found that Dr Montague (who apparently wanted to work some points in connection with his insurance society) had given the money to Sir Alexander Peacock with corrupt intent. ffyit he , also found that Sir Alexander Peacock did not accept the money with corrupt intent, although bis conduct was “imprudent and peculiar.” The net result is that Dr Montague has been exposed as a palm-greaser, though he probably wonders, as a smart American business man, what on earth all the fuss is ah cut. To sweeten a legislator with a £SO note is a mere piece of ordinary office routine in some goahead countries. And Sir Alexander Peacock has been .somewhat perfunctorily whitewashed. The incident is not likely to do him much good in his future political career. AUSTRALIA’S FIRST PREMIER. C caught sight of Sir Edmund Barton lunching aJb the Australia Hotel yesterday, with Lady Barton. He has become qaiite thin since he quitted the political arena of perpetual storm and stress for the exalted seclusion of the High Court Bench, where it is difficult to believe that he finds a congenial atmosphere. Sir Edmund Barton might say. with Browning’s hero in “Prospice,” “I was ever a fighter,-so one fight more,” and one imagines that in the present crisis, when his old antagonist, Mr G. 11. Reid, .is getting ready for the fray, the Judge, toe, like, the old war-house that he is snuffeth the battle from afar, and rejoic-eth in the sound of the trumpets. But it is not to be. He mu'st assist Sir Samuel Griffith., the Chief Justice, who, indeed, seems to he doing the greater pant of tlie work of the High Court himself. ’ COMMONWEALTH LAW. Sir Samuel, is a glutton for work, and week by week he gives forth portentous judgments on the most diverse ' .subjects. In the case of Richard Clancy, not “Clancy of the Overflow,” but Olanoy, a master butcher, the Chief Justice has laid' it down that a master butcher may. work in his own shop as long as. lie likes. This, revolutionary doctrine has caused much stir among ' rnesb oarly-olosers, but apparently it is good law. Li tlie case of McLaughlin v.. the “Daily Telegraph,” the Chief Justice ha■; laid it down that if a lunatic gives a pension a power of attorney, -and that person, acting upon the power of attorney’s in good faith sells the lunatic’s shares in a registered .company; then, when the lunatic recovers his sanity, he may repudiate tlie transaction, and compel the company to reinstate him in his original position as a shareholder. As a result of Sir Samuel Griffit-h’s ruling, the sanity of all persons who give powers of attorney is likely to he rigorously examined by people doing business with them in future. THE GOVERNOR-CENER A T .

Lady Northcote, and attended by a numerous staff, the latest accession to which is Lord Richard Nevill, who has become a most experienced vice-regal secretary since lie came out to Victoria with Lord Brassey'nine years ago. He has been passed on regularly from one Governor to another, and on the departure of Lord Tennyson naturally dropped into his old place with Lord Northcote as his new.chief. The.Northcotes were received with mild demonstrations of applause, and some triumphal arches decked with the usual greenery and glaring contrasts of coloured bunting. Sydney crowds are never enthusiastic about anything or anybody. Probably that is the result of the climate. Languid approval is the most that can be expected of them. The committee of the St. Vincent Hospital ball got in early, and secured the Gov-ernor-General’s first official appearance at tlieir function, which was preternaturally gay and smart in consequence. Lord Northcote had to deal with bit of a problem very soon after his arrival, but the weight of public opinion seems to be that he could lmvc done nothing else than send for Mr Watson on the .defeat of the Deakin 'Government. The only vigorous opponent of that view is Mr G. H. Reid, whose opinion, however, can hardly be regarded as free from at least unconscious bias. , The Northcotes are likely 1 to re-, main in Sydney throughout the winter, and their appearance has already set the ball of social gaieties rolling.