THE NEW MINISTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 10

THE NEW MINISTER.

MR. K. S. WILLIAMS. PUBLIC "WORKS PORTFOLIO. CABINET NOW COMPLETED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The appointment of Mr. K. S. Wfl. Hams, M.P. for the Bay of Plenty, as Minister of Public Works, was announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, to-night. In a statement Mr. Coates said: "In the course of my statement some weeks ago regarding Ministerial appoint- ' ments and changes in portfolios, I stated that, with a view to lessening the load I was carrying, it was my intention at an early date to relinquish the portfolio of Public Works, which I have held for some years. I have accordingly tendered his Excellency my resignation of this position, and Mr. K. S. Williams, M.P. for Bay of Plenty, will be appointed to i the vacant portfolio. Mr. Williams will [be sworn in as a member of the Executive Council immediately and will

assume the duties of his office at once. "I feel confident that Mr. Williams, as a practical farmer with lifelong experience and knowledge of the require* ments of our country districts, and what one may term the 'back-blocks' settler, will render good and efficient service. He possesses, also, long experience of local government and has always shown practical sympathy with the pioneer and the wage-earner. I know that the men employed in the Public Works Department will have in their new Minister an interested and large-hearted 'boss.' "The appointment of Mr. Williams brings the Cabinet up to full working strength. I should like to repeat that where there are so many eligible mem* bers of the party which I have th« honour to lead I have found the task of making the selection of new Ministers no easy one. I know it is impossible in these matters to give universal satis* faction, but I have endeavoured to pick a team that will, I believe, give of theif best in the service of the Dominion." EXPERIENCE IN PUBLIC LIFE. Mr. K. S. Williams comes of a family with Parliamentary associations, and one which is a household word in New Zealand. He is the sixth son of the !at«' ' Mr. John William Williams, who represented the Bay of Islands constituency from 1876 to *1879. Mr Williams is 56 years of age, and has represented the Bay of Plenty constituency since 1920. The new Minister has been a promin- , ent figure in local politics on the East Coast for many years, being practically an institution as chairman of the Waiapu County Council and also of the Waiapu Hospital Board. The agricultural development of the district has been his hobby, in the course of which he has subsidised many settlers, and organised the development of the freezing industry and the Whakatane Harbour. During the war time he interested his family in providing easy access to the land for returned soldiers, with the result that they purchased a block of 20,000 acres on the East Coast, and took a personal interest in making the soldier settlement on it a success, easily eclips- , ing any such movement elsewhere in the . Dominion.