THE COMING SESSION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9694, 23 June 1917, Page 7

THE COMING SESSION

A TROUBLED SITUATION WANT OF HARMONY IN' THE CABINET. GENERAL ELECTION MAY TAKE PLACE THIS YEAR. The prediction is being mode from several quarters that the session °f Parliament commencing next week will bo a strenuous if not a stormy one. On this point, we have had Ministerial assurances to the contrary. We have been told that the session will be short, that it will 1m confined to matters arising out of the war, and t lat there will he little to do beyond providing tor matters of finance and arranging the taxation for twelve months We durations do not heal out tl V In the first instance, tl e.e ls ln °‘ tlian a ‘‘‘will come from &&&&&&$ initv and remove all grounds of di>Oid" Tim harmony that was expected Vi accrue from the fusion is said to ■■tist anywhere except m the Cabinet. File trouble made its appe.ir.inc itrougly and significantly before the md tif" the last session, it waa noiorious when Sir Joseph W. ri < • ,eaving for the Old Country two of his Ministers, Hon. C.. \V. Russell and lion. J. A. Hannn, studiously icfndned from going to the steamier to take leave of him- Since' then the breach has widened rather than ished. It is understood that when tho late Hon. R. McNah died Mr Russell cabled to Sir Joseph Ward conveying tho news, and asking as senior Minister for instructions in the emergency. Thoi story goes that Mr Russell received no reply to that wire. On the other band, lion. W. D. S. Mac Dona d wius the recipient of a message from Sir Joseph asking him to do the best he could for the party under the circumstances that had arisen. This gav umbrage to Air Russell, and it will be remembered that on the occasion of tho Hawke’s Bay election a controversy arose whether Mr Russell or Air MacDonald was the acting leader of the Liberal party. With the return of Sir Joseph Ward, it is apprehended that a position already strained will become intolerable, and that certain changes in the Cabinet will become the consequence of tho situation. \Ve are told that tho situation has not been improved by tho pronouncement made •bv tho Hon. G. W. Russell concerning tho absorption of the Union Steam Ship Company by the P. and 0., and that however his sentiments may have appealed to public opinion, they have aroused resentment in the minds of some members of the Cabinet. Ihe development of the situation in the National Cabinet, which was formed in tho interests of national unity and party harmony,, will be awaited with some interest. In the meantime, there is something more than a mere probability that a general election may be one outcome of the situation, and may take place before the end of the year, and that steps towards this end in the direction of defining the now electoral boundaries have already been taken.