The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1911. AN AUSTRALIAN VIEW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 13, 28 December 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1911. AN AUSTRALIAN VIEW.

The view of an Australian journal oi note on tlie present political situation in New Zealand is at least interesting. Writing on December 18th. the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” sayf that although New Zealand is a political Africa, whence “comes ever .something new,” its, present parliamentary mix-up exceeds any margin elastic imagination could have allowed for, and continues: —“lt was to be supposed that when change came il would lie in the advent of a true-blue Labour party—Mr Seddon, the prime baffler, being gone, and his successor being rather disposed to a policy of marking time than one of adventurous legislative exploration. Instead, the authorised challenger of Sir Joseph Ward is, if anything, conservatively inclined; for Mr Massey champions the freehold in a country where perpetual lease has long been enforced as the only form of tenure modern progressiveness can endure, and his proclaimed policy otherwise is essentially one of cautious advancement. As for Labour, its proportions ire ridiculously small. The one member who constituted the party in the last Parliament has been ousted from ins Wellington seat, and the full strength in the new House seems tc bo three or four. But in "any closely contested game fractions become important, and in this case the scanty Labourites and Independents and Soialists, numbering eight all told, night narrowly turn the scale one way or tho other. That is, if they could act together. The attractive possibilities of the puzzle are enhanced by the fact that they' are disunited, some being against the Government and some for it. Years ago a Ministry of that country defeated a censure motion with the support of the Maori members and representatives oi che mining districts of the southern island’s west coast, and was cynically said to be held up by ‘diggers and niggers.’ On a close count that precedent may be partially repeated now. Or we might see a repetition of the political card shuffling of 1881, when Sir Julius Vogel had returned to make i queer alliance with the Radicals and two or three Governments were formed and smashed in as many weeks.” In the meantime the country' makes as merry as the weather will permit, and calmly awaits the Prime Minister’s pronouncement of what course he proposes to adopt. When Sir Joseph Ward has spoken we may expect developments.