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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3843, 10 November 1883, Page 2

In appointing Mr Mitchelson to a portfolio the Premier seems to have made a very hazardous experiment. Whcro ho lias lived and made his fortune it is natural to suppose that Mr Mitehelson's appointment would be spoken of in the kindest manner. And ho it is; but, lurking , under the guarded sentences of the Auckland papers, there is that which shows that they regard the whole thing as a sort of grim joke. The Evening Star says the announcement of the appointment took the city by surprise ; nobody entertained a suspicion that Mr Mitchclson was the coming man. The following paragraph from the Star's article shows plainly enough why the people were surprised:—"That the persovorunce and shrewd judgment which forced success in business life should have enabled him to take a good position in colonial politics is, perhaps, not a matter of surprise, though the want of opportunity has necessarily interfered with the cultivation of those faculties and talents of mind which we are accustomed to associate with political success." From the above sentence we can only gather that Mr Mitchelson has been so busily engaged through life in amassing wealih that lie ha;? totally neglected his own education. The Auckland Free Lance does not hesitate to speak its mind out on the subject and says:—"Not one of our Auckland men of the Government party could living strength to a Government, or was likely to bring much of wisdom or experience to its councils. Not one, therefore, should have been selected. It is time the old-world notion that each locality must contribute its quota to the muddle of a bad Government were once for all abandoned. New Zealand is a colony worth governing well, and such ideas as this must render good Government generally impossible. "What we Avant is the boat possible Exociitivc to manage our affairs, not an Executive made up of men selected from the incapable of each provincial district. It is hinted that the new Minister is to hold the Portfolio of Public Works. Shades of Vogel, Eichardson, and Have we come to this, that a man who kiwws little more than how to make a track*f6r packing gum is to have chargo of Hie most important department of our Executive Government ?''