CABINET CHANGES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 149, 24 June 1903, Page 5

CABINET CHANGES.

THE PREMIER'S SPEECH

REMARKS BY THE RETIRING MINISTER

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Tuesday

At the birthday supper given in his honour last night Mr Seddon corroborated the statement made by your representative on Saturday that the Hon. Mr Walker had retired from the Ministry. This information, by the way, was available for "S\ar" readers fortyeight hours in advance of a similar notification appealing in other papers, in the colony. The Premier is puzzled as to how the news came into the possession of the '"Star , reporter, it having been his intention to keep the fact of Mr Walker's resignation a close secret till last night's function, when he would have had an opportunity of bringing oft' aiiother of those surprises which he tro loves to spring upon the press and public. In broaching the subject Mr Seddon said his audience would expect that if there was any change imminent iie would take them into the confidence ofhimself and his colleagues. He desired to inform them, therefore, that there was a change in the Cabinet, that his. esteemed friend and colleague, the Hon. Mr Walker, who had been with him for seven years, had resigned. That day Ministers had had amongst themselves a leave taking. He thought he could say of his colleagues that they were not only colleagues, but true personal friends." They had battled together for so many years, and when the parting came no one regretted it more than he did. The primary cause of separation was the ill-health of his old friend and colleague. They were calling to the Cabinet Colonel Pitt, who would be Attorney-General. He reminded them of "the seven stonewallers of 1881." when there was an infringement of representation, and, as they believed, of theii- constitutional rights. Chief of those stonewallers was Colonel Pitt. Now the position was changed, and he supposed lie (the speaker) was leader and Colonel Pitt was coming in to keep them in order legally. He could only say that the change made had be6K from the reason he had mentioned, and he would show them that time had not impaired him. At all events it had not made him afraid to work. He had reluctantly taken tlie portfolios that were held by his worthy colleague, and he trusted he might prove a worthy successor' as Minister [for Education nnd Immigration. He could uot bring to the portfolio of Education or to the Department that high training and scholarship which characterised his i colleague, but if an earnest desire, if a wish to do justice to the rising generations of the colony counted for anything, he could assure them that such attention would be given. He trusted that his experience for thirty-four years in connection with education matters would assist him. He believed it to be the desire of the people of the colony that every opportunity should be given, that every boy. no matter how humblu the position of his parents might be, if God had given him ability, might ;fise from the public schools tp the .university. He could only say that he would do his best, and he knew he would have the assistance, a.c far as the burden could be lightened, by his colleagues. They would share in his labours, and he hoped and trusted that the good werk that had been done, the reforms that had ts.Een place during the time Mr Walker Held the portfolio, would stili further progress, and that in the change the people and youths of the country might not suffer. He should have said in reference to his friend and colleague that he would like to see him presiding in the Legislative Council. He was sure that if services cheerfully rendered in the House of Representatives and in the Council as representative of the Government, if past services, earnest desire, and good fellowship With his fellow members counted for anything, then his colleague had worthily earned the distinction. SPEECH BY THE HON. WALKER. In replying for the Ministry to the toast of "The Parliament,"' Mr Walker made reference to his retirement. The time he had been in office had been seven and a-half years—years of most .unrestricted friendship and unrestricted confidence and enthusiasm, of knowing one was part of a team that they 'honestly' thought was doing really good work. He felt perfectly confident that as far as the portfolio the Premier was now taking was concerned, the Department, of Education would be in hands that would do it thorough justice, more especially because the new Minister of Education would have the additional luxury of also being Treasurer. He did not mean to say that this work had been in any shape or form hampered or stifled by reason of the Premier putting the stop on, but still he felt quite certain that the work of the Department would be none the worse served by having to go to the fountain-head in the first" place. The new Minister would be able, in his own mind at the first go off, to measure whether the Treasury would be able to run new lessons "or not, because new notions were arising, and the Department would be no good at all if they were not. He felt certain that in the hands of the Premier the Department would receive every attention oven from the material point of view of the Treasury. Hβ had the greatest confidence when he handed over his portfolio, which he had done his little best to keep alive during his seven and a-half years of office, that it would be taken over by hands that would do it thorough justice, and that the cause of education would be materially advanced, as they all wished it to be,'and as to the best of his ability he had been endeavouring to advance it during his term of office. He considered it a fortunate circumstance that the announcement o\ im retirement enabled him to speak that night for the last time on behalf of the Ministry on the auspicious occasion of the birthday of the Premier.