CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 43, 19 February 1918, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE

PERIPATETIC MINISTERS

TO THE BDirOR.

Sir,—lt should not be implied that criticism of the movements of Ministers at the present or at any other time is attributable to either ignorance or illnature. If- it were a fact that the Government exhibited a high standard of statesmanship, criticism might be construed into even an offence. But it must be emphatically stated that nothing has' been done during the period of control of the National Government to wayrant''laudation;'and it.should certainly be the privilege of every person, in the community to criticise the actions of the people who are in a position to either make or mar this Dominion. In the minds oi many estimable people, the proposed visit of "Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward to England is condemned, not so much on account of the cost of themselves and the usual, retinue, but because it is thought that a way should be found to represent our desires to the Conference without taking the persons named away from work in the Dominion, which must'be considered of vital importance to the ■ procuring of happiness and contentment to the people' of New Zealand ; and, although it has been decided in Cabinet that Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward are to go Home, it would be well to. ask ourselves why, If the ability necessary to conduct the affairs of this Dominion is possessed by the former, and it is on this assumption he goes to England, why should Sir Joseph Ward accompany him ? But th.c whole matter of the presence of the two leaders at Home is to take the form of a preventive to the handing back to Germany of her island possessions. Now, it might be concluded that were this to be decided by vote it would be effective, but it r.brtainly appears 1 a poor outlook if .these possessions are to be secured to us by the persuasiveness of the oratory of either-representative. It simply comes to this : that the- two leaders are the emissaries of the people, and it is the force of the people behind them that will .influence the Conference. Surely, then, full effect can' be given to this force without either Mr. Massey or Sir Joseph Ward leaving New Zealand, and in this way :—A memorial could .be prepared in which would beset out resolutions passed in the respective "electorates and sup' ported by the signatures'of the members of such electorates. Such a document should be handed' to the -Conference by the Dominion's representative in London, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, who, under every condition, seems to be the person who could most appropriately perform all ,that might be required under special commission or authority. Sir Thomas Mackenzie is our trade agent, and no matter whether five hundred Sampas were annexed to New Zealand the! possession .would be of no value did they not represent trade. -The person men tioned is, therefore, the' one who should represent us'at the Conference in London. '.'

" The heading of my communication suggests reference to the' Ministry generally, and there can "be no more aggravating intelligence to the peppla who; are doing so much' for our soldiers than to see the newspaper announcements of the arrivals; and, departures of Ministers, the errands on which they come and go being, in most cases, such as should devolve on the Mayor or some prominent member of communities visited." The presentation of medals to schoolboys, the opening of maternity homes,' etc., should' not, most assuredly, call Ministers away from Wellington to the incurring of heavy travelling' expenses. We have this fact in view, that a visit is not made by f, Minister to a district unrepresented by a highly-paid Civil servant who, it may: bB assumed, ia well able to impress Ministers by letter of all they want to know. So frivolous dp some of the reasons fof visits appear ,that i,t is time the public made pronouncements against them. The visit of a Minister to a district to observe how certain fish entered a river suggests' .that' it was expected that they would come }n tail foremost, or, possibly, ready tinned. Shplj m .liken the National Government to the plates in a medical work showing the'glorious and sublime mechanism of man," but whose defects and ailments almost 1000 pages are required to describe? —I am, eic, '" • : I.4th February.