CABINET PORTFOLIOS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1932, Page 9

CABINET PORTFOLIOS.

IMPORTANT AI/TEKATIONS. MR. RANSOM AS LEADER? (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON", Thursday. Important alterations will have to be made in the allocation of Cabinet portfolios during the absence in Canada of New Zealand's delegation.

It 19 expected that the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, will be acting-Prime Minister, a position which he occupied while Mr. Forbes was attending the Imperial Conference in London in 1930 as head of the United Administration.

There is a possibility that the Minister of Education, the Hon. R. Masters, will take over the portfolio of Finance from Mr. Stewart Until his return. Mr. Masters has only one other portfolio, that of Industries and Commerce, and, as he has a sound knowledge of business methods and finance in general, it is likely he will be entrusted with Mr. Stewart's Ministerial duties in the meantime.

It is possible that Public Work 3 will be allocated to Mr. Ransom, who held that portfolio during the United Government's term of office.

The Postmaster-General, the Hon. A. Hamilton, who is also Minister of Labour, is mentioned as being likely to administer the portfolio of Employment until Mr. Coates returns.

The Cabinet has been sitting long hours for the past few days, and a great deal of attention has been devoted to the Ottawa Conference. Late this afternoon the Cabinet Ottawa Conference Committee heard the representations of tobacco and hop growers, and immediately after this the committee was engaged in a discussion of conference questions for two and a half hours. Preparations for the conference are already well forward, and the Government will be actively engaged on completing its plans within the three or four Weeks that remain before the delegation must leave Auckland for Vancouver.

No intimation has yet been given concerning the staff which will go to Ottawa, but it is almost certain that the Comptroller of Customs, Dr. G. Craig, will be one of the experts included. Dr. E. Marsden, Secretary of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department, is absent from work on account of illness, and it is unlikely that he will be able to leave New Zealand.

A representative of the Industries and Commerce Department may be chosen, but, in any event, in view of the fact that three Ministers are to go to Canada, the delegation \vill be kept as small as possible.