THE VACANT PORTFOLIO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1911, Page 5

THE VACANT PORTFOLIO.

A CLOSE SECRET. (By TelegrapU.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) states that he has no announcement to make at present regarding the filling of the position formerly occupied by the lion. George Fowlds. Though a good deal of rumour is current as to the probable appointment of one or even two Ministers, Sir Joseph Ward's intentions are being kept a close secret. The only hint of his intentions which has a better foundation than the many statements in circulation was provided when the Education Department's report was presented to Parliament on Friday afternoon, this formality being done in the name of the Hon. T. Mackenzie. LOBBY GOSSIP. (By Telegraph. —Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Rumours are current in the Lobbies of recent happenings in Cabinet, which, it is said, at one time threatened to beoome serious. The story goes that strong complaint was made against a Minister who controls an important Department in which the public is closely concerned, for dealing with the affairs of his Department on too personal a basis—in ■other words, that he did not take sufficient notice of the views oi expert heads, but, going beyond them, acted on his own initiative in a way which the heads considered was not conducive to the best interests of the service. It is understood that the Minister in question indignantly resented the suggestion that he did not know as much as the heads whom he ministerially controls, and at one time so wroth w?.s he that, according to the rumour, he threatened to secede from the Gaibinet, and, from what has leaked out concerning this Ministerial quarrel, such a serious step was only averted with difficulty. Happily, harmony was eventually restored among the navigation officers oi our ship of State.