POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 19, 7 September 1911, Page 4

POLITICAL.

THE WANGANUI SEAT. (I\r Press Association.) Wanganui, September- 6. The Wanganui political was opened here tnis evening by Air. (.cargo Hutchinson, an opponent of the Government. The Opera House was packed, and the speaker had a vpry good hearing. He severely criticised the \\ ard Government, and evolved n scheme for the reconciliation of capital and labour, based on the adaptation of principles of co-operiition to circumstances approaching those of co-partnership with limited liability so that while capital shall be safeguarded labour shall participate in the profits. Ho explained his proposal at considerable length. NOTES BY THE WAY. -Air. Massey having stated in ’the blouse that he objected to discussing the financial Statement before the lailnays statement was furnished, as was usually the case, “in order to meet the lion, gentleman,” replied the J/rime Minister, amid laughter, “I will defer the Financial Statement until hriday night.” MB. FOWLDS’ RESIGNATION. WHAT THE PAPERS SAY. The “N.Z. Times”:—“Much as the ictiroinent of Mr. Fowids from the Ministry is to bo regretted -Unco the countiy loses the services of a ccnsciontious, hard-working administrator— Umre seems little room for doubt that under the circumstances, he decided upon a perfectly correct line of personal conduct. Having come to the conclusion that the trend of public policy should be in a particular direction, and finding that the Ministry was not prepared to make this its goa!, Mr. lowlds very properly. ,e----eni'n t i > i oVol \ a . rel ationship which could only have been continued by doing some violence to his own feelings - c*agS.”' TaSSi, ' g his The Wellington , “Dominion * the retirement of Mr. Fowids rill !L,y + G!T nn nba r assin « t 0 f,te Governleilt - ~! bongh never likely to catch Clio public eye as anything mule than a rather commonplace, though painstaking and hard-working M mister, ho served a useful purpose in attaching to the Ministry a certain n on-con formist section of the community And he toils us that he is sacrificing all so that ho might ‘express his whole soul to the people of New Zealand.’ We sometimes wonder how far the public are deluded by tins sort of sloppy claptrap. Mr. Fowids is- an ambitious man, and no one can object to him grasping after a position . 10 Ina y think offers bigger possibilities than the.one he is abandoning. “Taranaki Daily Nows”“When Mr. George lowlds joined the Ministry it came as a surprise that he, a single-taxer, should consent to do so Uio uncharitable went so far as to say that it was an! excellent method of drawing ins single-tax tooth,’ for. of course, Mr. Fowids dare not preach the doctrine as <a Minister. When Mr lowlds resigned from the Ministry tno other day the suspense appeared just as acute. Mr Fowids is a very uoi thy man—not brilliant, or particulai ly constructive, not an orator, .not a stateman—but a plain, sensible Scottish gentleman with fixed views, u Inch he has had to conceal in more or less degree as a Minister of the V, rm y; h . - To regard the resignation of -Mr rowlds as a jiolitical catastrophe, or to suggest the downfall of the Goon that account is t.o pay Air I owlds a very great complinient, and one that i\ ill assist him very niateiially in any designs he may have in revolutionising politics and in cleaning the Augean stables.” “Taranaki Herald” “Although it was known in well informed political cii cles that the Cabinet was not at all a happy family, few; we imagine, were prepared for the resignation of his portfolios by the Hon. Air Fowids at the present time. . . The main feature of his resignation, for the present, is the additional element of uncertainty which it introduces into the political situation.” ‘‘Wanganui Herald” -“The resignation of the Hon. George Fowids from the Ministry, of which lie has been such a conspicuous member since he first received Cabinet rank in 1906, has come somewhat in the nature of a shock to the community generally, though it is probably not a matter of very great surprise to those who have followed more closely the trend of politics and political life during the last few years. . . In a nutshell, Mr Fowids is apparently disappointed in the want of Democracy in the Government, but we are not altogether satisfied that the whole truth of the dissection has leaked out.”