Evening Post. FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1912. THE NEW CABINET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 76, 29 March 1912, Page 6

Evenin g Post. FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1912. THE NEW CABINET.

The long delay of the Ward Ministry in shufHing off this mortal ctrfl came td an, end yesterday, taka Charles IL it has certainly been ''an Unconscionable" tiftie in dying." I*h*t» the natural reluctaiicft to faoe the inevitable resulted in the postponement of th* meeting ot Parliament for two Months after the Ambiguous Verdict of tha electors had made sL prompt appeal the only pfOpor cota?fiOi After Parliament met fufther delay wad caiised by the desperate end€avoux« ot the Government io "saVd fae&" by de' feating th^ no-Corifidettce riidtion.; and tho«& iiirindeuvres having succeeded there 1 has been a further delay of a month iv carrying out the promise of resignation^ on the faith of which a technical defeat had been averted. For the last part of r the delay Sir Joseph Ward cftnflot bd held respoilsible, for he has been ready to go as soon ac a successor was ready to take his place. Bub the party as A whole must tak£ the blame for the ex^ travagantly long intefV&l of thres months' and a half betwee"ii th* recording of the popular Vefdiet and the giving of any effect to it. Now that this defflor< alising period of hesitation arid disttec tidn, of" doubt® and fears and intrigues, is at an. end, Mr. Thomas Mae'keniiie' may be congratulated upon being installed ill office with a quitp presentable teatm The most striking ptectdidfity of the hew Ministry is the complete breach that it represents with tho personnel of the previous Administratidft. The resigns tion 6f Sir Joseph Ward, oi course, car» ric*d with, it as a technical consec[iienc6 the resignation of his colleagues, but, as the grounds of his resignation Were mainly personal and were not of a kind to touch the honour of either himself or his colleagues, it was natural to suppose that the opportunity would be taken, for eliminating the. weaker members of the Administration and replacing them With new blood. Yet for one reason or another strong and weak have shared tli* same fate. Except for Mr. Mackenzie himself, not a single member of the old Cabinet finds a place in the new one, even the very capable Minister who specially represented the Native ra-ce sharing the fate of the rest. Such a clean sweep, when there has been no pfevioud Upheaval in the party and no striking change of policy to justify it, is a remarkable, if not a unique, experience! Even the leader himself seems strangely placed. It was only at the beginning of 1909 that he joined the Waa-d Government as an honorary Minister. He had previously been an Independent in politics, and his independence had not been of the Radical order. Now as Premier he is committed to a programme which represents something a good deal more Radical tliah the measures he accustomed to oppote during the Seddonian regime. IliS strongest points aie undoubtedly his business knowledge and hhi special familiarity with the net-ds of Hip fninit'i- mid the eoliditioflß" of outgreat producing ifidtislries. The second position in the new Cabinet has been assigned to Mr. Arthur Myers. His rise haft been rapid Indeed. It is less than two years since he was fiiet elected to tho Jlouee, and he then stood as an Independent. fJut lus indepvndenus liko ,Uutt of Mr. JLi, .M. J4UI, hst i>xq\

vented him from being 90 per cenrt.. a. INlinist-erialist from the first, and now lie is a full-blown Minister. Though a, Parliamentary novice, and n«ver likely to develop into a powerful debater, Mr. Myere has served a long apprenticeship to tho public service as a highly successful Mayor of Auckland, and also in other capacities. We bolievo that his financial and commercial knowledge marks him out as quite the best Minister of Finance thab the party could have chosen to take the place of Sir" Joseph Ward. But it is clear that he is absurdly overloaded. H© is to be Minister of Defence and Minister of Railways, as well as Minister of Finance, thu* combining what are three of the most important portfolios of all, not to count two others of minor importance. We believe that as an old volunteer officer and an ardent Imperialist Mt. Myers is likely to make a good Minister of Defence — a Department in Which tho lamentable Ministerial wobbling of the last few weeks has jeopardised the great scheme of military training in the ve*y hour of its brilliant success. Doubtless when tho portfolio still vacant has been assigned, Mr. Myers will be relieved of a part of his excessive burden, and in that event we should be well pleased to see Mr. Wilford take chafge of the Defence Department. A Minister who te at orice firiri, tactful, arid not consumed ; with a desire to hide his light und«r abushel is what the Department needs j to mako its great undertaking a permanent and incontrovertible! success. Com.ing to tho minor positions in the Ministry, we find the outstanding feature" to 1 be* tlie number of them assigned to Canterbury. It is utterly absurd that, without v any superabundance of talent to" justify it, this one provincial district should have been giveli four seats" in tho Ministry. That two of the position^ thus assigned are Supernumerary is conclusive proof that this absurd disproportion Was dictated not by regafel for the 1 public intefest, but by the necessities—ot the Bupposed necessities— of political engineerings Mr. Laurfenson and Mr. Russell had doubtless made their titled good, but it would have been muoh bet-< ter to let the other two wait instead oi specially 1 enlarging the Cabinet for their" benefit, the? disproportion seems the" more unpardonable when we find that Otago hte no representative" at ally though Mr. Sidey'u claims, apart froirt any geographical considerations, were a,i least as good as ih'OSfe of" the two Canterbury men wha have been «p«6ialiy favoured. As' for the rest, Mr. flanari should make a sound, if not brilliant* Minister" of 'Justice and Prisbns, and ho may also do well in tho Education D&< partment, though it is not to be sup-< posed that he <sari etytial what Sir Johil i Findlay did in the one position find Mr/ Fowlds in. the other. Nor can we ex-" peot Mf. Colvin, as" Postmaster-General, to rival the special skill and experience 1 of his- late chief, fiut the W«st Coast had to have somebody to fill Mr. % M'Kenaio's place, and there was nobody elfi» specially ctit out for the job, and •o the Post Office was passed on to Mr. Colvin along with the oare of Mines, I"he method 01 exhaustion sometimes pfodtices Queer result* in polities as else* whet*. Th§ Ministry may be expected to jog along respectably fdr the next ihre» months, and t6 serve for Opposition powder thft Hou** meets jubt ad -Weli as a beit«f one.