The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1891.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6165, 4 June 1891, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1891.

Wiien Mr McKenzie was entrusted with the cares of office he found himself in the position of a cook who has too mnny pots and pans to stir and to smell. Every day he was worried with tittle-tattle that this pot was boiling over, and that pan was burning , . Ho was at hat driven to racing out the fire and chucking the pots away, and when he was told by the Conservative press that that was not the way to cook a dinner he got some somll cheap saucepans in the place of good copper atew pans and employed an economical brother Scotchman to stir the porridge. Hence we have Mr Eitchie at the head of tho Stock Dopartment. He was a good man, said Mr McKenzie, and "an economical man on a station, one who was well qualified to reorganise the Sheep Department." If these words had not been uttered by a responsible Minister of the Crown, we should say that they showed the speaker to have a pretty good cheek. But as we have on more than one occasion criticised Mr Ritchie's appointment, it is only fbir to publish what Mr McKenzie has to gay about it. Mr McKenzie eaid : —" On taking charge of tho Btock Department he found it in a, most disorganised stato—ho found that instead of having one head to control tho whole Department and responsible to the Minister, there were no loss than six chief inspectors, one in each provincial district; and that, instoad of confining their expenditure to the amount of tho vote of lust session passed for tho purposes of the Department, tUoy had expended something over £'2000 above what was by the House. Ho had found that thouHauds of pounds were each year spent by thosa six chief inspectors in keeping down rabbits on Crown lands without any control whatt/ver from tho headofneoin Wellington. Tho iiecimnta had been sent up for payment from each district without approval by anyone except the Inspectors, and they had simply to bo paid without qiiestioa on their reaching Wellington. Ho, himself, since he became » Minister, had to

approve of payment of accounts which had | never been authorised, by tho head office. ! < These were solid facts which could be proved | by documentary evidence, and could not j 1 possibly be disputed. Hβ then saw that it would be impossible to devote Mifficient time to manage tl-e whole of the Stocic Department himself, and came to the conclusion that the proper thiug to do would be to appoint a head over the department who would have his heudciuartersjin Wellington, who would be responsible to the Minister for all his action*, aud who would have to consult the Minuter before entering into any plans, which might cost the colony any considerable sums of money. Having come to that conclusion, the next thing he did was to select a man for this important position, and on going through the lists of the Department, he did not find one in whom he could place sufficient confidence to appoint to the office. He then looked outside the Department for an able man and thought of Mr Ritchie He did so because he knew Mr Bitchio well. He knew what good work he had done iv putting down the rabbits on the Mount Royal Estate, and he knew Mr Eitchie to be an energetic, steady, and economical man on a station, one who, in his (Mr McKenzio's) opinion was well qualified to reorganise the Department." In other aud fewer words, Mr McKenzi6 on taking office found the Act was being administered m laid down by law, but being bewildered by the novelty of his position, and overcome by a sense of.inexperience, he called into his assistance an old Scotch friend who was not going to allow the votes of tho House to be exceeded even though rabbits did increase and multiply on Crown lands to the injury and ruin of the settlers. Twa thoosaud poond mon ! think of it 'a ganging bang !