THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19476, 11 May 1925, Page 8

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

The death of the Prime Minister, while it has deprived the House of Representatives of its most masterful personality, has plunged the country into a political crisis of unusual complexity. In the loss by the House of the figure that towered over all others in the present Parliament and in the last one. the Reform Party has been bereft of a leader to whom all its members were drawn in a degree in which they have not been attracted to any other member of the Government. But Mr Massey’s place as Prime Minister of New Zealand has to be filled, and constitutional procedure requires that it shall be filled without delay. It is true that a period of eleven days elapsed between the death of Mr Seddon in 1906 and tho assumption of office by his successor. That was an exceptional delay justified only by the circumstance that it was considered desirable that Mr Seddon’s body should bo brought to Now Zealand and interred before tho office which he had filled for so long should be occupied by any of his former colleagues. It is not necessary, nor is it desirable, that any such delay should occur before a new Prime Minister is sworn in on tho present occasion. The death of a Prime Minister automatically terminates the existence of the Administration over which he presided, and the plain need for preserving tho operation of the machinery of government demands that the representative of the Crown shall be provided as continuously as possible with responsible advisers In tho circumstances the duty is imposed on the Governor-General of seeking a successor to Mr Massey. His Excellency possesses an unfettered discretion in the matter, but established precedent as well as the natural order of things points to an invitation being given to one of the late Prime Minister’s colleagues, representative of a European constituency in tho Lower House, to form a new Government. Sir Francis Bell, Leader of the Legislative Council, however, who has been Acting-Prime Minister at various times during the existence of the Reform Government, is the doyen among the colleagues of Mr Massey, and it is probable that his Excellency will in the first place turn to him for advice. Moreover, there would bo no irregularity, and there would be a great deal of appropriateness, in tho formation by Sir Francis Bell of a provisional Government pending the election by the Reform Party of a new leader in the House of Representatives. If his Excellency conceived it desirable that the opportunity of reconstructing the Ministry' should at once be offered to tho colleague of Mr Massey in the Lower House with the longest term of service, he would send for either Sir Heaton Rhodes or Mr Guthrie, but their state of health puts it out of the question that either of them should accept a commission to form a Government. Next in order of priority of appointment among the members of the Reform Government are Mr Coates and Mr Nosworthy, who joined it on the same day. Should the Governor-General form the opinion that it is to one or other of these two that ho should turn in tho unfortunate circumstances of the day, it will bo in accordance with the course that was pursued at the time of Mr Seddon’s death if he sends for Mr Coates, as the administrator of the more important

departments under Mr Massey. But whoever receives his Excellency’s commission to form a new Government will be confronted with the existence of a set of political conditions that did not obtain while Mr Massey was at the head of affairs. The removal of a statesman of eminence such as he was does not leave unaltered the complexion of th© politics of the country. It would he less than seemly were we to-day to do more than glance at one aspect of the probable effect which Mr Massey’s death may have. Members of Parliament, not on one side of the House only, will have to consider in a new light how the interests of the country may best be served. New Zealand has undoubtedly benefited abroad by the remarkable circumstance that, the National Government being regarded as it may fairly be regarded as a continuance of the Reform Government, there has been only one change of Administration in the long period of 34 years. No other country has, at any time, been so free from political disturbance as New Zealand has in its recent history. The impression of stability of government that has thus been created has been an appreciable factor in the credit which the dominion has enjoyed. How is this desirable stability to be maintained ? In the present composition of Parliament it can only be by a fusion.of the parties between which there are the smallest grounds of disagreement. The fact that the general election is_ only a few months distant furnishes only an additional reason, but a distinctly powerful one, why the member, whoever he may be, to whom the task of recontructiug the Government is entrusted should not lightly ignore the possibility of bringing about the coalescence of the Reform and Liberal Parties.