The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo and The Sum. TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 1933. THE NARROW VIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 85, 11 April 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo and The Sum.

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 1933. THE NARROW VIEW.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs reristanct, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

The new member of Cabinet, of course, will have the good wishes of political friends and foes for his Ministerial career. Mr. Bitchener is an industrious member of Parliament, who will bring to Cabinet considerable knowledge and experience of public affairs. But the objections to his appointment that were stated here yesterday remain, and, indeed, they extend upon reflection. The equipment that Mr. Bitchener brings to the Ministry is there already in abundance. He is of a type that has been common in. Cabinets through our political history —the hardworking, earnest country member who has graduated through local body politics, who knows farming conditions well, but who is almost entirely without originality or inspiration. The Prime Minister implies that Mr. Bitchener will be a good friend to backblocks settlers, as if that class needed another advocate in a Cabinet in which there is not one representative of the four cities, with their population of nearly 600,000 and their great accumulation of wealth. Not only is Mr. Bitchener appointed to Cabinet, but he is given the very important department of Public Works. It is true that there will be much less for this department to do than in the past, but it is most necessary that the new Minister in Charge should be a man of strong character and receptive to new ideas. It is essential that the department should be put upon a business basis, to be run on strictly economical lines- and kept clear of political influences. Does Mr. Bitchener's record suggest that he is the man to insist on these things being done? The truth is that an opportunity has been missed. Old-established party conventions have been given preference over the needs of the country in a critical time. Mr. Coates, leader of the Reform Party, made this selection. He stood strictly upon his party right to supply half the members of Cabinet. In choosing his man he put seniority before the qualities for which Cabinet should be searching. The country is growing more and more critical of this kind of attitude. If party leaders form a Coalition, why do they not carry their compact into all important matters? A Cabinet appointment is surely something that should be settled by the leaders in conference, and to insist upon party representation being kept strictly equal is against the spirit of the partnership, which was entered into for the sole and express purpose of getting the nation out of exceptional difficulties. Choice should fall upon the best man available, irrespective of party or length of service in the House. These comments will certainly be made by tens of thousands of citizens, and it will not escape notice that the action commented upon was taken just after the first Dominion conference of the New Zealand Legion, a movement that has arisen out of dissatisfaction with the trend of our politics. Promoters of the Legion will say that this appointment is an example of the kind of party-before-country custom that they consider should cease, and who can deny that there is reason for this contention?