THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1924. HOME POLITICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19201, 18 June 1924, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1924. HOME POLITICS.

Whether the Labour Government in tho Home Country will get through the present year without definite parliamentary defeat -and an appeal to the electors is a question which is in the lap of the gods and certainly not a safe subject for confident prediction. It may bo that Mr Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues will not be anxious to prolong a situation which must have many irksome and even exasperating features. The position of a Government dependent upon parties wholly or partly hostile to its views must necessarily be ticklish, and it is clearly understood that the most far-reaching objectives of the Labour Party are not likely to be submitted for the consideration of the present House of Commons. There has been a good -Weal of conjectural discussion regarding the probable approximate date of the dissolution of the Parliament elected six months ago. The probability is that if Mr Ramsay MacDonald were to ask for a dissolution, whether in consequence of unequivocal parliamentary defeat or on the general ground of the difficulties incident to " minority ” tenure of office, the King would feel entitled to accede to the request. The Prime Minister has declared that he will not recognise the obligation of retirement until the House of Commons has recorded a vote distinctly involving a no-confidence judgment. Pending such a verdict, he. has the right to take his time and to await what he conqeives to be, as the phrase goes, the psychological moment. The Liberals, or at least a section of the party, piqued by the lack of deference. accorded to them by the Labour Government, have threatened to force a dissolution m the course of the coming autumn, —a threat which, oi course, could not be carried iuto effect without the co-operation of the Conservatives, who may have divergent views on the matter. The cable reported yesterday that Mr Josiah Wedgwood, who enjoys the quaint timehonoured Cabinet sinecure of the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, in a week-end speech, warned the Labourites against the Liberal suggestion for an autumn election. Ho declared that the next. Budget would deal with land for the people, and there was likely to be an appeal to the electorate upon this matter. The wording of this report is not free from obscurity. Mr Wedgwood may have advised his Labourite audience to prepare for the likely contingency of an autumn dissolution, with a campaign marked by advanced propagandisin' on the land question. On 1 lie other hand, the forecasting allusion to “ the next Budget ” indicates an anticipation that the present Government will still be in office in the spring of next year. No doubt there is a third interpretation : the Chancellor of the Duchy may have dreamed dreams and seen visions of an autumn flection resulting in an overwhelming Labour victory and the establishment of the MacDonald Ministry in power as well as in office, —perhaps with an accession of “ Clydeside ” administrators. It will be noticed this morning that the Prime Minister, replying to a question in the House of Commons suggesting the possibility of an election before the autumn session in November, said he was perfectly certain the autumn session would be reached without an election. Of course there might be an election alter the autumn session had been “ reached.’’ Mr Ramsay MacDonald has not had much to say about the question of land reform, to which Mr Wedgwood referred and which is sure sooner or later to furnish ground for aggressive Labour enterprise. There was a hint of such enterprise in Mr

Snowden’s Budget in the intimation that the Land Valuation Department is to bo re-established. This department was instituted by Mr Lloyd George as ono of the “ rare and refreshing fruits ” of his land tax scheme in 1909. It may have served some useful purpose in the collection of data, but up to the close of 1915 it had cost £3,268,000, while the taxes which it had to levy had only brought in £751,000, and it was swept away after the war as a useless expense and sheer waste of money. If it is reestablished it can only be, the Daily Mail declares, “ because the Socialist Party means to restore the unprofitable land taxes, which were one direct cause of the present house famine.”