The Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18627, 3 December 1928, Page 8

The Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

PARLIAMENT will meet to-morrow, and the fate of the Coates Government will be decided on the no-confidence motion submitted by Sir Joseph Ward. From the investigations of the special correspondent of the “Star” in Wellington, it appears certain that the Government will be defeated, that Sir Joseph Ward will be called upon to form a Ministry', and that the House will adjourn until June. In the present state of parties, if another election is to be avoided, Sir Joseph Ward will have to be assured of sufficient support to enable him to put his legislative programme through, and for this reason he will have to give a prettyclear indication of his programme by June next, if he does not choose to do so during the short session. We have alw-ay's taken the view that enough members of the Reform Party will ally themselves to Sir Joseph Ward to give him a working majority as an alternative to another election, but for our own part, we should heartily welcome another election because the country has arrived at an entirely new orientation in politics, and would be very impatient of the old Reform and Labour propaganda to the effect that these were the only two parties worthy of consideration in New Zealand politics. Then, too, the party that precipitated a general election would be certain to arouse some degree of resentment in the country', and it may be taken for granted that neither Reform nor Labour will be anxious to bring about a dissolution. ,

COMMANDER BYRD’S expedition has already received the stamp of success on account of the widespread interest which is taken in its every movement by the people of America. The Press of that country is featuring this expedition’s preparations and leave-takings on the front pages, and for a time the adventure of the Antarctic has reduced the unwholesome trivialities of crime to their rightful proportions in the interest of the newspaper reading public. All the agencies of news dissemination have been mobilised to follow the quest of knowledge. The expenditure of about one million dollars on equipment, the purchase of ships and aeroplanes, the selection of the eighty-three men from the 5000 applicants, the loading of the ships and the course of events at Dunedin have all been followed by a public who will go as vicarious adventurers with Byrd. They will watch the expedition transfer to the big -whaler, Larsen, and the ice-breaker, the City' of New York, for the final dash for the Bay of Whales and then through the ice pack to the landing on the Ross Ice Barrier. Pictures will show them tractors hauling portable houses, supplies, and ’planes to the base, dogs lay ing a line of auxiliary bases to the Pole, while for the information of geographers, aeroplane cameras, travelling at the rate of 90 miles an hour, will film strips eight miles wide. Thus, whether or not Commander Byrd ever flies over the Pole, he has already accomplished great things in substituting good for evil, knowledge for ignorance, and healthy adventure in the place of crime in human thought.

/V CORRESPONDENT suggests that the analysis of the voting at the general election, published last Thursday', does not give a “ square deal ” to the Reform Party', and from the point of view of mere figures there is something in his argument. In the abstract, it is just as logical to add together the votes cast for Reform and Labour, and point to their overwhelming majority over the United Party, as it is to add the votes cast for the United Party and Labour for the purpose of demonstrating into what a hopeless •minority Reform representation has shrunk. But there is just this point about the analysis (which, by the way, was prepared by' the Wellington “ Evening Post,” an independent paper with leanings towards Reform), that the Reform Party happens to be the Government Party, and the most striking fact of the election was the failure of the Government Party to emerge with anything like a majority of the votes. The newspapers of the Dominion have almost been copipelled to lay emphasis on this fact because of the reluctance of some of the Reform journals to accept the election as a defeat of the Government, and the same Reform journals are now putting it about that there must be a coalition between the United Party and “ the Reds ” if Sir Joseph Ward is to carry' on. Admittedly', in regard to important questions like unemployment and electoral reform, which are of prime importance at this crisis, the United and Labour Parties are much more closely in sympathy than the United and Reform Parties; but the Reformers for years have been telling the country that they are the only true Liberals, and we hope that enough of them will be intelligent enough to recognise a Liberal programme when they see it, and honest enough to transfer their allegiance to the author of the document.