DIRECT ACTION AND CANBERRA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18821, 11 July 1923, Page 4

DIRECT ACTION AND CANBERRA

Emulative of the effort that established Washington as the capital of the United States, direct action is proposed in an endeavour to make Canberra the seat of government for the Commonwealth. The site for the national capital of the United States was chosen at the original suggestion of President Washington, after much opposition. Put the politicians of those days were much the same as those of to-day. Year after year procrastination triumphed over political promises, until a Direct Actionist arose, and proposed that the next Parliament should be held at the site of the capital. Caught unawares, those who had been dilatory, deliberately or otherswise, had no option but to support the proposal. Profiting by the precedent, Mr W. G. Mahony, Labour M.P. for Dailey, was to move in the Federal House of Representatives last week that it be a recommendation to the Governor-General that the next Federal Parliament meet at Canberra. The matter was to come up under the heading of private members’ business; but the fact that the Prime Minister has given any opportunity at all for the discussion lent colour to the belief that the matter would be treated as a non-party one. According to the Sydney Telegraph, solid support was certain from the New South Wales members, irrespective of party, and it was expected that the support from other members would be sufficient to carry this direct-action motion, which would achieve, in less than three years what twelve years of investigations and resorts by commissions mid committees have failed to forward. So far the cables have not informed us as to the fate of the motion.