The Native Affairs Portfolio

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21377, 21 January 1935, Page 12

The Native Affairs Portfolio

The news that the Prime Minister, Mr Forbes, is taking his position as Minister for Native Affairs and the Cook Islands very seriously and that he is doing his best to introduce order into the Native Affairs Department, is welcome and satisfactory as far as it goes. That no less could be or should be expected from the Minister in charge of any department it is scarcely necessary to say. But having said it, we may proceed to question whether Mr Forbes's good intentions are a sufficient guarantee that the affairs of this department will be administered as thoroughly as it deserves. The recent enquiry into the affairs of the department made it plain enough that its administration is almost a full time job for one membe? of the Cabinet and that it offers complexities and difficulties such as are met with in perhaps no other department and which would fully tax the ingenuity, resource, and industry of a man unburdened by other cares. Mr Forbes himself tacitly admits the embarrassment of his multitudinous tasks in mentioning his difficulty 'as Minister in visiting at least part of the area that comes under his control. That is not to say, of course, that it is absolutely necessary (however desirable it may be) for a Minister to visit every area that is covered by his portfolio. His mention of his difficulty in doing so nevertheless indicates that he would give more time to the work in hand if he could spare it. The fact seems to be that Mr Forbes, in adding the Native Affairs portfolio to his already heavy burden, is in danger not only of overworking himself or of doing himself an injustice in the attempt to do too much but also of casting too great a strain and responsibility upon the elasticity and resource of his departmental advisers. It would probably be better both for Mr Forbes and for those who are the department's concern if the portfolio were handed over to less busy hands.