OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18899, 27 June 1923, Page 4

OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST.

(From Our Own Correspondent.! LONDON, May 18. REFORM PARTY’S INSTABILITY. A comprehensive account -of the political situation in New Zealand is given to the readers of the Manchester Guardian by its Wellington correspondent. The greater part of his article deals with facts, but some of • his comments in the concluding paragraph may bo interesting to , those who do not see the Manchester Guardian. “Apart from the unexpected strength and solidarity of the Liberals under Mr Wilford shown during the brief session of Parliament,’’ says the writer, “the most interesting development is the altered tone of Labour. Tills is all in the direction of moderation. Mr Holland and his associates most determinedly resisted 1 any attempt—■ and there wore many—to classify the Labour Party as Socialists, extremists, ‘Red' Feds,’ as they used to call them, and thus create odium in the popular mind. Labour in New Zealand is closely' studying , the policy and methods' of Labour in Britain, and with the - ' same ; object—that; of. preparing for the day when constitutionally it can become the Government. Indeed, the day may not be far distant when a Labour Government will bo in power in New Zealand. If anything happened to Mr Massey, the Reform Party would disappear as quickly as it rose. There is not one. of his associates or colleagues to-day to whom he could hand Over his •mantle with any confidence. The party itself has no real roots in the country apart from its alliance with moneyed, and Landed interests. It- is wholly an anachronism in the light of the present problems of New Zealand. Thus, even if Labour did not immediately become the Government, in such a. contingency, it would at least be the official Opposition, and that is the next step to power. With such prospects ahead, politics in New Zealand cannot fail to be more in•foresling in the near future than they have been for many years past.” (WESLEY’S CHAPEL. The Methodist Times calls attention to the marked loyalty of the Methodist Church in New Zealand io the Mother Church. “America hn.s taken an intimate interest in (lie affairs of British Methodism,” says the writer of an editorial note, “and when the appeal for the restoration of Wesley’s Chapel and graveyard was made some splendid promises were forthcoming from our transatlantic brethren. Now New Zealand has asked to bo allowed to have a share in the good work. At the Conference which has just been held at Dunedin it was decided to open a fund for the Westminster Abbey of Methodism. The New Zealand friends are aiming at raising £250, and the appeal goes forth with the exhortation that ‘the Conference expects, every Methodist to claim the privilege of giving, something towards renovating Wesley’s Chapel, and making it a centre of world-wide Methodist life.” SPORT IN THE DOMINION. With the foundation of a cable message regarding the wapiti which arrived from New Zealand last welt, the Army, Navy, and Air Force Gazette publishes in the current issue what is generally known as a “chatty paragraph” regarding the dominion. “One hears very little of what is going on in New Zealand, but it is fast getting known as the most settled and in some parts of the dominion the most prosperous portion of the Empire. It was remarked, and with some degree of truth, that i\ow Zealand possesses neither a millionaire nor a pauper. Doubt might be cast with respect to the former statement, but certainly there is no real poverty. At one time sport, as known in the Old Country, was unobtainable. It was not until comparatively recent years that trout were successfully established in New Zealand streams. News has just corno to hand from Wellington that the first wapiti ever acclimatised in the Southern Hemisphere ha.a been shot. It is intc>-erting to recall that the wapiti were presented by Mr Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, and now number thousands. Canadian moose, another importation, are increasing A.pidly in the same district. So the absence of_ shooting, which is such an attraction to tho average. Britisher, will not be felt, so fr.: aa Now Zealand is concerned.”