THE POLITICAL POSITION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14837, 14 February 1919, Page 2

THE POLITICAL POSITION.

HON. W. D. S. MACDONALD'S

VIEWS.

A Wellington correspondent writes : — Naturally,- the Hon. W.. D, S. MacDcnald, the acting leader of the Liberal party, in the absence of Sir Joseph Ward, was a little diffident this afternoon in responding to ain invitation to speak a piece for > publication concerning the political situation. Tn the morning papers there Was a paragraph stating that the Son. T. M. Wilford had declared himself emphatically in favor of ending the party truce and the National Cabinet on the signing of peace. It was sought to ascertain wi at the Minister of Agriculture, standing in the shc-cs of his party chief, thought about the matter. But he was i*ofc very communicative. "You will rot expect me to< speak quite so definitely on this subject as my colleague has done," he said, as an assertion and as an interrogative. "The public would be apt to assume that any views I expressed were the views .of my absent chief, and that obviously/ would be unfair to him. Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, with the concurrence of Parliament, made the party truce, and the National Cabinet, and they alone, can unmake them, if they, are to be unmade." Further than this the Minister would not go along these ! lines. . ■ • | THE EXISTING COMPACT. j But Mr MacDonald was quite ready to talk about the existing. compact .and the obligations it imposed upon Minis- j ters and private members of the House. "It- was not expected when the compadt, was made," he went on to say, "that the war would continue for four and nhalf years, and keep the country in political inactivity all that time. Person-* ally, I should have hesitated to place such a strain upon the patience of the electors without looking around for ; some alternative had I anticipated auy- , thing of tho kind. A year, ov a year and a-half at meet, seemed as long as we should require to leave ouv domestic affairs in abeyance, and a), the time this did not seem too big a pi ice to pay for a united effort towards winning the. war." Though he does not admit as much, it is pretty evident that Mr MacDonald has found the compact a. pretty big tax upon his own patience. He is not in public life for the fun he gets out of it, and the burden of waiting weighs heavily upon his practical soul. i LABOR. : Discussing the recent political activities of Labor, the Minister, breathed a spirit of sweet tolerance : He always had encouraged the direct representation of the workers in Parliament^ up to the full strength of their voting power, he said, and he would not be greatly perturbed if they got a little more than their precise sharel But they would not exercise the influence they should in improving their own lot and shaping the destinies of the country till they realised that their strength lay in the bailed, box, and not in the promotion of social bitterness and industrial strife. He scouted' the idea of a majority of the workers being disloyal to the Empire., and quoted their services during the war as a refutation of the suggestion. "Yes, 1 ' he added, smilingly, in leply to an interjection, "they are giving the National Cabinet a pretty rough time, but they have the field all to themselves, just nowv and the National Cabinet is a stimulating subject." I THE FUTURE. ' Mr MacDonald protested it was impossible to discuss the future without presuming this cm* that was gi ing to happen to one or the other of. the political parties, but, -pressed on i'.e point, he mentioned one or two lh ; r;gs New Zealand would have to do for its own salvation, whatever party were hi office. In order that it might bear the increased burden of taxation and still enjoy somu of the relaxations of life, jit would have to enormously increase its production by inducing every suitable man and woman to go on to the. land, and :t would have to so adjust the relations between employers and employed in every industrial pursuit that- willing hands would always bo available for' the work to be done. It sounds a little Utopian put into a single sentence, but Mr MacDonald believes the .country is prepared for heroic measures. ."We have done during the war what seemed impossible before," he said in conclusion. VSurely we ought to be able to do greater .things in time of peace."