TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1898. THE HON. JOHN M'KENZIE.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 153, 27 December 1898, Page 4

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1898. THE HON. JOHN M'KENZIE.

♦ Though ifc is stated with seeming authority that the Hon. John M'Kenzie has been much benefited by his stay at his home in the South Island, it has for some time been an open secret that* he has been warned by his medical man that the continuity of Ministerial and Parliamentary labour cannot be sustained without risk of the gravest consequence. Politicians of all degrees and opinions will be sorry to hear of this, and, moreover, would we think be glad to know of any means that might be devised to prolong the active publio usefulness of the Minister for Landsi Whatever may be his faults— and this journal haa never attempted to cover them — there cau be no question of the great and distinguished service he has rendered to the cause of land reform iv this country. In the face of extraordinary difficulties he has placed on the Statute-book, and induced the electorate to accept, the principle that monopoly of country lands in populous districts cannot be sustained. If such owners will not of their owu motion subdivide and sell, the State, under the M'Kenzie law, can step in, pay full value, and re-sell in suitable areas for close settlement. That is a great principle, which if applied to Britain might put back her people on the land and make her again the granary of Northern Europe. But, liberal as are our land laws, they have yet, and in the near future, to be further liberalised if they are to overtake the problem of the unemployed, and successfully place upon the land the youth, of the country. In the Party to which Mr. M'Kenzie belongs there is no man visible who could for a moment be considered worthy to succeed him. A weak successor might weaken the Government, a result that we could view with equanimity ; but on the other hand the evils of Seddonism have been largely discounted by the highest of the achievements of the present Land Minister, aud if the present Government is to survive, it will be better for the country if the Hon. John M'Kenzie remains in office. The only hope of that is that he may have complete rest and entire change of scene, and we therefore welcome the announcement that he is about to visit the Old Country. For eight years he has laboured unceasiugly for the State, and it would be idle to deny that the State has greatly gained by his exertions. It is well known that the hon. gentleman has long desired to visit his native land, and if • by doing so his health could be restored and his resignation of office avoided, the people of the colony would, we feel sure, be glad to see him go as a Minister of the Crown. Even a stay of a few weeks would bring him into touch with the leading public men associated with our affairs, and that must prove an experience that would redound to the best interests of the colony. As we have said, the Hon. John M'Kenzie has earned the right, by reason of his public services, to visit the Old Country as a Minister of the Crown ; but apart from that aspect of the question, it would be a churlish thing even on the part of his opponents to do other than approve his going when it is considered that the long sea voyage, the complete rest, and a sight once more of his native hills are the best possible medicine for the impaired health that in the years when it was robust he gave ungrudgingly to his adopted country. For whatever his failings the Minister for Lands has not only been a daring land reformer, but an untiring and continuous worker, and the official income he has received for his services has been very hardly earned. Aud, speaking generally, we would like to see these official journeys beyond the seas of more frequent occurrence. Our island situation tends naturally to provincialism, and correspondingly our public men contract a narrowness of political vision that reacts injuriously upon the country they are called Upon to govern. We feel sure that it would be money well expended if, pay, every third year a principal Cabinet Minister were to visit the Old Country, and there Batisfy himself by personal enquiry of the manner in which the commercial interests of the colony might be bettered by colonial legislation aud departmental regulation. The time has gone by when the intervention of the State in matters of commerce was looked upon as an injurious interference with private enterprise. Indeed, to-day it is almost a matter of reproach to New Zealand that she lags behind the adjoining colonies, the Canadian Dominion, the United States, and the Argentine Republic in the regulation of her great export trade of perishable food products. As the head of the Agricultural Department the Hon. John M'Kenzie could, in a few short weeks in the Old Country, acquire direct and positive evidence upon this great subject that should prove of the highest value to him as Minister of Agriculture — knowledge that would no doubt largely shape his attitude toward many of its branches in the Legislature after his return. Among the most important of these we may mention the very grave question of tuberculous disease in the cattle herds of the'colony. Already we are in doubt as to our ability to extirpate this disease, even could we afford to seriously make the attempt. Mr. M'Kenzie will be enabled to obtain on the spot the real view of the Board of Agriculture in London as to whether the policy of this country should not be mitigation rather than extirpation, and as that view will be founded upon the exact knowledge of the highest scientific authorities in the world, ib may be the means of saving the taxpayers of the colony a great sum of money, and its stockowners almost ruinous loss. yVitli this question also is inseparably associated the future management of our dairies, the quality of our dairy produce, and our domestic supply of- pure milk. In these aspects of the matter both health and commerce are intimately concerned, and exact knowledge would be of incalculable value. As to the meat trade, the problems that demaud solution are so many and so familiar to our readers that it would be needless iteration to here enlarge upou them. It is enough to sa\ r they include official grading, inspection of abattoirs, cold stores at ports of departure and arrival, regulation of temperature in transit, regular consignments, removal of the insurance disabilities, storage without exposure and damage at the other end, and effective distribution without excessive toll to the middleman. In this connection we hope that the hon. gentleman will be in a position to secure the paid services of Mr. Thomas Mackenzie, late member for Clutha, who, we are credibly informed, is the best-informed colonist now in London on all the ramifications of the colonial produce trade. Finally we would, iv no spirit of offence, suggest that the Minister for Lands will keep the cost of his trip down to such an amount as will compare favourably with the sums the country has had to pay for the recent European aud colonial progresses of the Premier. To our mind, besides such visits as the one under notice, one member of the Cabinet should visit the Australian colonies in every Parliamentary recess, and the country would applaud the practice if the cost proved reasonable. But unfortunately the almost royal state in which the Premier takes his trips abroad makes the taxpayer rather shy of these Ministerial excursions. We hope the Hon. John M'Kenzie will avoid the bad example of his ohitt,