WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15853, 26 November 1923, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE NEW PARTY.

FINALLY EXTINGUISHED

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, November 23

Though no one has been taking the new party story very seriously, its final extinction by Mr W. D. Hunt’s disclaimer of any connection with the movement evidently lias relieved the Government and its friends of some of their anxieties concerning the immediate future. The “Dominion" cordially agrees with Mr Hunt that there already is one party too many in the House. “The differences between the Reform and the Liberal parties,” it reiterates, "arc in the main personal differences. They have much in common that but for the personal feeling which has been generated in certain quarters there would be little difficulty in their coming together and forming a powerful party, thus ending the existing unsatisfactory state of affairs. Mr Hunt is a non-party man so far as politics arc concerned, and his frank expression of opinion on the subject should carry the more weight on that account,.’’ This is an old talc, and, to a certain extent it is well-founded but not even the “Dominion" itself lias indicated how the gulf between the Reformers and the Liberals could be spanned without doing violence to the political conscience of cither side. Yet this surely would be a necessary preliminary to any negotiations between the contending forces.

The Real Pos“.::n.

During the short session of Parliament in February, when the fate of the Government appeared for a time to be trembling in the balance, Mr Massey quite frankly invited the Liberal members of the House to come over and help him. Considering all the circumstances, that was a long way for the Prime Minister to go. His personal relations with the leader of the Liberal Opposition never had been cordial and they had been further aggravated by a strcnously contested election. The next move lay with Mr Wilford, but, so far as the public knows, it was not taken. It was reported at the time, however, that the matter had been considered by a Liberal caucus and that it had been decided to ask Mr Massey to reduce his casual invitation to a concrete proposition. The Prime Minister did not accede to the request, probably because the compact between himself and certain Liberal members of the House made it unnecessary just then for him to seek further assistance from the Opposition. But the second session of the new Parliament showed that the position of the Government was extremely uncomfortable and not particularly secure. Even with the recruits drawn from the Liberal camp it still held office only through the dissensions between the two groups constituting the Opposition.

Some Suggestions,

It was after this second session that j the possibility of a fusion between the ; two old parties was seriously discuss- j ed by some of the South Island Liberal j members. They frankly admitted | their dissatisfaction with the existing, state of affairs anil their readiness to j listen to proposals from the other side. I But they would not admit that there were no differences of policy between the Reformers and the Liberals and they would not subscribe to the contention that fusion, regardless of terms, would be justified by the suppression and ultimate extinction of the Labour Party. It was suggested, with approval, that a reconciliation between the two parties would be facilitated by the retirement of Mr Massey and the appointment of one of his colleagues in his stead. Mr Downie Stewart’s name was mentioned in this connection, as it had been in the lobbies during the session, and it still is being mentioned. But this is an aspect of the position to he considered by the Prime Minister himself and no one will wish to discuss it during his absence from the Dominion. It is scarcely necessary to say that Mr Massey’s colleagues strongly deprecate any suggestion involving his abdication. Business Men in Parliament. Meanwhile people who know the man and realise the gravity of the political situation to-day will regret Mr Hunt’s disinclination to “meddle with politics,” as he would put it himself. No other business man in sight at the present time is quite as well equipped as he is to supply the House of Representatives with the kind of in- : formation concerning finance and business affairs generally it so sorely needs. On whichever side of the House he sat—and he probably would find some difficulty in adjusting himself to the platforms of any of the existing parties—he speedily would become a highly useful member. The good folk who arc rejoicing over ids renunciation of the new party, however, might not find him quite so complaisant, as they have imagined him to be. It is obvious from what he had to say to an interviewer the oilier day that lie does not think the administration of tlie Government to be cither so consistent or so efficient as it ought to bo and that he docs not regard the evolution of a sane, loyal and capable Labour Party as a peril to the community. He has, in fact, in a marked degree, the qualities of clear-thinking and logical reasoning which business men should be supplying in much larger measure than they arc doing at present to the Legislature of the Dominion.