A BUSY MINISTER.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16404, 26 December 1918, Page 6

A BUSY MINISTER.

ON A BRIEF HOLIDAY

The Acting-Prime Minister, Sir Jamos Alien, arrived in Chris Lchurch 011 Tuesday morning and went on to Dunedin, where he will enjoy a short rest after an extremely strenuous year. The well-worn phrase, "a wellearned rest," appliog" to him exactly, for it will be conceded by anyone who has close association with Ministers that his list of daily callers is tremendously heavy (says the "Wellington "Post"). The human element is so bound up with Defenco activities that an enormous amount of work connected with the soldiers and their relatives centres on the office of the Minister of Defencc. Ordinary office hours have to bo ignored, and the Minister works even longer hours than his staff, as the callers, private and departmental, during the working day almost preclude any possibility of quietly considering the many important problems which have to be decided bv the Mjnistor himself. The Defence portfolio covers a multitude of activities. There are "War Pensions, Soldiers' Financial Assistance, and the numerous sub-divisions of the Defence Department itself. These covor the care of the sick and wounded, a very big problem involving vocational training as well as curative treatment, and the provision of hospitnl accommrdntion for a constantlv growing number as the returning men arrive. Demobilisation is another of the big problems from which the Minister of Defence will only tnke a short rest. The svstem of demobilising returning men on the transports has had to be evolved and put into operation, and the Defenco Department's work in this respect co-ordinated with that of the Repatriation Board.