THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1923. THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18763, 17 January 1923, Page 4

THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1923. THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Some organs of Liberal opinion have not given a very promising reception to the suggestion mooted by the conference of the Reform Party at Wellington bust week with a view to facilitating the maintenance of stable government. The conference expressed the willingness of the Reform Party to entertain the idea of "any equitable arrangement by which those members of Parliament who are opposed to Communism may be brought together." It is quite likely that Mr. Massey will receive the .support of a sufficient number of Liberal members to enable him to carry on, whatever

view of the rapprochement may betaken by Opposition newspapers; but an apparent disposition to magnify the divergences of the Reform and Liberal policies does not indicate the likelihood of anything approaching a general fusion. The Auckland Star, seemiiiLdy endowed with a peculiar insight that is denied to average observers, declares that the issue is not between extremism and moderation, but between “the progressive democracy that Liberalism represents and tho system of class privilege and conservative class legislation for which Reform stands.” This statement, in wording as well as in general trend, bears the stamp of an antiquated mode of political polemics; and it might be wished that our contemporary had thought fit to give some concrete examples both of the democratic progressivcncss and of the class

privilege and legislation. Of course, this kind of shibboleth talk, quite unrelated to actual conditions, will have to cease if there is to be a party fusion or a co-operative arrangement. As regards the near future, however, whatever may happen later, the aid given by Liberalism to the Reform Government is likely to bo partial rather than general. It may bo confined to those few Liberal members who are pledged to help the Government in resisting attacks which, if successful, might lead to the substitution of a regime propped up by extremist support. There may be some doubt as to the way in which the pledges will bo interpreted and carried into effect, but the knowledge that they have been given and will bo honourably observed is obviously not without its bearing on Mr Massey’s constitutional position. The Prime Minister is persistently twitted with the fact that the nominal Reform members number only thirty-eight in a House of eighty; but clearly there is a quality of disingenuousness in the implied suggestion that all the remaining fortytwo are opposed to the continuance in office of the present Government. At the same time wo have not disguised our opinion that Mr Massey’s attitude towards the obligation (as we regard it) of calling Parliament together at the earliest convenient date has been of a rather too indolent kind. No doubt, if is for the Governor-general to decide for how long a period he is justified in retaining advisers whose parliamentary status has been weakened by an equivocal expression of public opinion; but the head of the Ministry may fairly be expected to take the initiative step towards securing a prompt expression of parliamentary judgment. The suspicion, probably unjust, that a Government is disposed to hang on to office, or is reluctant to put its fortunes to the test, cannot fail to have a prejudicial effect upon its prestige. The idea of postponing the opening of Parliament until certain election petitions have been adjudicated is, it seems to us, utterly indefensible. The Prime Minister continues to talk in a complacent strain about what the Government proposes to do in relation to this and that matter, and it is not altogether surprising that his opponents remind him of an ancient and very familiar fable about the computation of unassured chickens. We are strongly of opinion that tho special session of Parliament should not be postponed until March.