POLITICAL SITUATION

Southland Times, Issue 18623, 22 August 1919, Page 5

POLITICAL SITUATION

TERMINATION OF COALITION. MR MASSEY EXPECTED MORE NOTICE. NO POLICY STATEMENT YET. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 21. A few comments on the situation as it is i at present were made by the Prime Minis- | ter to-night. Asked whether he was sur- ; prised to receive news of Sir Joseph Ward’s ' resignation, Mr Massey said : “I cannot | say I am surprised, because when I was i in Paris I noticed in the New Zealand papers j forwarded to mo, that a meeting of the Liberal Party had been held and that, with the concurrence of their leader, they had decided to dissolve the partnership and bring the Coalition Ministry to an end; but I did expect that we should have had more notice | than has been given. I think that the | dissolution of partnership should have taken j place directly on our arrival in New Zea- | land or it should have been held until we ■ had got through the business of the session. | We are now within seven days of the meet- j ing of Parliament. The speech of the Go-vernor-General has still to be drafted; the | Financial Statement has still to be prepared; ] the amount of the soldiers’ gratuities has j still to be fixed and agreed to. In addition the Minister of Lands and his department have made an estimate of the sum necessary to carry' on the work of repatriation. This has yet to be considered by Cabinet, and later on it will have to be submitted to Parliament. Then there is the question of the reduction of taxation, which the country is looking forward to eagerly. I still hope that something will be done in connection with this during the coming session. In calling attention to these important matters, I should just like to say that I have personally no fear of the future. I have absolute confidence in the country and absolute confidence in the good sense and intelligence and patriotism of the great majority of the people of the dominion. “I understand that Sir Joseph Ward has taken advantage of the opportunity to put forward his policy. lam not going to complain. I simply ask the public to withhold their judgment until they have had an opportunity of comparing his proposals with those which I hope to submit later, but I want to make it quite clear that I am utterly opposed to setting party against party. It is very ,evident that there is a section of people in the community who are anxious to return to the old system of party shibboleths, old bad ways of seeking party advantage without regard to the first interests of the country. This is not a time for anything of that sort. I hope to see a strong party, whatever they may call themselves, of the very best men the community can select returned to Parliament at the coming election, with one definite object, of maintaining the prosperity of the dominion, increasing the production of the country and so enabling the people, without inconvenience, to meet the enormous liabilities which we have incurred by doing our share during the war period. “One is tempted to expound in some detail the proposals which my Government will put before the country. We have in view definite and practical proposals for the development of the country' by settlement and improved transport facilities. In our schemes of settlement we must and we will have regard first and always to the claims of the returned soldiers and we hope to be able to give them good opportunities of making successes of their farming ventures. When the war broke out, on behalf of my colleagues, I laid down the policy of the Government. It was that we should do our full share in the war and keep the country prosperous. That we have been successful scarcely requires demonstration. It is not necessary to refer to what was done during the war, but with regard to the prosperity of the - country, the statistics for the last six months show that our exports have been for that period valued at over £29,000,000 more than the total value for the preceding twelve months. Admitting that this was due to shipping having become more plentiful, the fact remains that for the whole period of the war our exports were over £30,000,000 for the year.” As to the future Mr Massey was quite confident in his declaration that he expected to be able to carry on the Government. He said that he could not go into details as to his intentions regarding the formation of a new Government, but there would be a reconstruction of the Ministry in the near future.