The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926. CHANGES IN THE CABINET

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 97, 19 January 1926, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926. CHANGES IN THE CABINET

Much interested speculation is in a measure set at rest by the Prime Minister’s statement on the subject of Cabinet reconstruction which we publish to-day. More extensive changes than those now announced have been generally anticipated. A perusal of the statement will show, however, that Mr. Coates has elected to carry out his task of reconstruction by stages. Further changes, in the Prime Minister’s.own words: “are to be recommended in the near future in order to bring the Ministry up to full strength. ..... . The three new appointments meantime made are likely to meet with general approval There is no doubt that Mr Coates, as he frcely S admits, has had a difficult task of selection; and that some of those 7 who have meantime been passed over had and have stiong claims to consideration. The new Ministers, however all appeal to have qualifications which should'enable them to fill their offices Wlth On his showing in and outside Parliament, the Hon. O. J. Hawken should be well fitted to administer the Department of Agriculture. In his association with dairy control and other undertakings of moment to the man on the land, Mr. Hawken has had an extended experience of the affairs with which he will have to deal in his Ministerial capacity. The Hon. J. A. Young came into special prominence last year as chairman of the Reform delegation which conferred with a Liberal-Labour delegation on the subject of fusion He is an experienced member of the House, a good debater, and served in the last Parliament as Chairman of Committees. The Hon. F. J. Rollestori is a young member who has come rapidly to the front. He has the exceptional distinction of being appointed to the Ministry after serving for only one Parliamentary term. Since he entered the House three years ago Mr. Rolleston has made an impression as an obviously earnest student of political affairs. As a private member he was an independent and. somewhat adventurous critic, and his further career, now that Ministerial responsibilities have been placed on his shoulders, will be followed with Any estimate of the quality of the Cabinet as a whole evidently should be postponed until the Prime Minister has completed his task of reconstruction. Full approval may be given, however to the measures by which he proposes to provide for the more effective handling of his own responsibilities and the better organisation of

the Ministerial team. . ... Conditions have been allowed to develop in this country in which the Prime Minister is loaded down with a killing burden of detail work and is thereby prevented from doing full justice to the laigcr responsibilities on which he should be in a position to concentrate. We have urged repeatedly that the Prime Minister should be relieved as far as possible of detail duties, and also that piovision should be made for a much more methodical treatment and consideration of Imperial affairs than is possible as matters stand. The measures of reorganisation proposed by Mr. Coates should o- 0 far to satisfy these demands and to ensure a more effective treatment of both national and Imperial affairs. The Prime Minister s Department which is to be created with Mr. F. D. Thomson, a State official with unique experience, as its first permanent head, may be expected to serve a very useful purpose in intercepting and sifting a tremendous mass of detail. The proposal to appoint a special officer whose duty will be chiefly confined to Imperial and external affairs is particularly to be commended. There will be general agreement with the view expressed by Mr. Coates that all Imperial questions should come under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister. Hitherto, the objection has existed that the Prime Minister was already so burdened with duties of departmental administration that detail attention to Imperial affairs would tax him beyond the limits of endurance. In the conditions now to be created, it should be quite possible for the Prime Minister to give adequate attention to Imperial affairs, as well as to national affairs in their wider aspect. At the stage meantime reached, and particularly where the ie adjustment of the duties of his own office is concerned, the Prime Minister evidently may be congratulated on having made good headway in an important and exacting task. It is, of couise, obvious that the reconstruction of the Cabinet and the readjustment of Ministerial duties are far from having been carried to completion. . An undoubtedly progressive step will be taken when the Prime Minister is relieved of all duties of departmental administration save those attaching to his own department, and this apparently is. what Mr. Coates has in mind as a policy to be carried into full effect in the near futuie.