NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1926, Page 9

NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL

A NEW POLITICAL PARTY AUCKLAND DISPLAYS UNREST. OPPOSITION TO CONTROL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 23. Auckland has been the birth place of many a new political party, and, according to the northern correspondent of the Evening Post, the Queen City is in travail again. “It is reported,” this authority, telegraphs, “that steps are being taken to form a new political party in New Zealand. The platform that is being discussed has negative rather than positive planks, for the party is said to owe its origin to the antipathy of the promoters and their friends to ‘control’ legislation, government by Order-in-Council, and the continuance in force of - certain of the war regulations.” This is a platform scarcely broad enough to detach any great body of electors from any of the existing parties. Many’ Reformers, as well as Nationalists and Liberals, are strongly opposed to “absolute control” and to the retention of war legislation which enable Ministers to govern by the force of Orders-in-Council rather than by the voice of Parliament. If Mr. Coates and his colleagues attempt to keep New Zealand still lagging behind every other part of the Empire in this respect it will not require the creation of a new party to bring them to their senses. The older parties, at any rate, will not tolerate longer this travesty of constitutional government. DAIRY CONTROL. The local critics of “absolute control” and of the policy of the Dairy Board make light of the testimonial to Mr. J. B. Wright, which the Press Association has broadcasted as a set oil against the strongly-worded "cablegram from Mr. S. Paterson, the Government’s nominee in London, depreciating the value of the services of the board’s London manager. In the first place, the critics point out, the objections raised against Mr. Wright’s management of the board’s London agency have been of a purely impersonal character. There has been no suggestion that the London manager lacks in ability, zeal or integrity. It is cheerfully recognised, indeed, that he always has done his best in what he conceives to be the interests of the producers. But, it is contended, he is altogether out of touch with the sentiment of a majority of the farmers and business men, and by his devotion to compulsion and to pricefixing is estranging the goodwill of numbers of people who in the past have done much for the promotion of the Dominion’s interests. The testimony of firms that approve of his high-handed methods can be taken only at its face value and thus must be determined by circumstances. THE BRIGHTER SIDE. The local evening paper, with characteristic optimism, has discovered a bright side to the freezing industry trouble that none of its contemporaries hs yet discerned. After referring to the economic waste occasioned by the slaughtermen’s strike, the farmers’ losses, the freezing companies’ parlous position, the common misfortunes of the public and the stupidity of industrial leadership, it reveals the light ahead. “There is, however, one faint possibility of a constructive result arising out of a negative situation,” it telle its readers, having reduced them to the receptive attitude of despair. “If there is any vitality in the co-opera-tive spirit of freezing companies—the merger or partial merger which has been freely advocated on economic grounds—they may find in the present crisis a common fighting plan, and perhaps a means of handling or diverting stock co-operatively instead of compettitively, so as to reduce wasteful overlapping and to make the most of the free labour supply. A common peril may possibly provide the shortest route to common policy.” It is unfortunately a fact that co-operative manufacturing and trading concerns frequently display less sane appreciation of the value of co-operation than do proprietary concerns of the same kind, but it may be hoped that the co-operative freezing companies, if only by the exigencies of the situation, will be compelled towards a logical solution of their troubles. THE CRICKET TEAM. The first breath of dissension concerning the New Zealand cricket team that is to tour England during the northern summer next year has reached here from the columns of the Dunedin Star. Mr. Dan Reese, the brilliant cricketer of a decade or so ago, having announced his inability to undertake the management of the team, has indicated, it seems, the man that should be entrusted with the job. The Star warmly espouses the claims of Mr. Rees’s nominee, as it has a perfect right co do, but, unhappily, not content with airing its own views on this point, it proceeds to disparage the claims of some other real or imaginary aspirant to the position. ”It is rumoured,” it says, “that from Christchurch will be urged the claims of another gentleman for the managership, one who has been prominently identified with another branch of sport in New Zealand rather than with cricket. Of one thing there can be little doubt, and that is, that if the selection rested with the various cricket associations of the Dominion, the team would leave under Mr. Wilson’s management. That a member of the governing body of the game in Christchurch is understood to have aspirations for the managership puts those making the choice in a somewhat delicate position, but personal considerations should weigh lightly as compared with the feeling of cricketers throughoui both islands.” The publication of stuff of this sort is not “cricket.” It is opposed to all the tenets and traditions of true sportsmanship, and will be denounced by every lover of the great game.