AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 154, 30 June 1926, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

FEDERAL CABINET RESHUFFLES

TWO NEW MINISTEBS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, 25th June.

The outstanding event of the week in Federal politics lias been th- reshuffling of portfolios in the Cabinet. As the result of these, Senator G. I\ Pearce (Nationalist), formerly Ministo- for Home and Territories, becomes Vice-President of the Executive Council, and Leader of tho Government in the Senate, his portfolio being taken by Senator Sir ■William Glasgow1 (Nationalist), of Queensland. Mr. .T. Paterson (Country Party), of Victoria, becomes Minister of Markets, and Migration instead of1 Senator Sir Victor Wilson, of South Australia. Mr. L. Atkinson, of Tasmania, a Country Party member, drops out of the Cabinet. Senaior Wilson's resignation .was a forced one, as he was defeated at the elections in November last, and his term expires on 30th June. The surprise was Senator Pearee's relinquish, ment of the Home and Territories Department, this being an indication that this political veteran, who has .'had a remarkable run of Ministerial offices since 1914, has his eye on the_.ehairmanship of the Northern Territory Commission, for the provision.of which he has been largely responsible. Tho negotiations for the reshuffle, which'wore rendered somewhat delicate by the relations of the Pact parties— Nationalist and Country—and their representation in the Cabinet, were in progress for several months. (She o': tho difficulties was the fetish that each Stato should have a representative in the Cabinet. / This lias been dropped in the newly-arranged Cabinet, as neither South Australia nor Tasmania now has a representative. There was also th' larger question of the representation of the two Government parties. ], This question was accentuated wheii the r >untry Party wished to have try Tarty member appointed instead of Sir Victor Wilson, who, though elected in 1917 on the Country Party ticket, split with his colleagues, did not attend their party meetings, and was finally ousted mainly because of the bitter Country Party opposition against him at the polls. This incensed the Nationalists, who after all wo*n the day, as a Nationalist Senator filled Senator Wilson's place, while a Gpuntry Party man filled a vacancy caused by a Country-ite dropping out of the Cabiret. THE NEW MINISTERS, The new Minister for Markets and Migration (Mr. T. Paterson) will hold the more interest for New Zcaianders, as ho is the author of the Patei-scm butter stabilisation scheme, under which, as from Ist January last, an Export bounty is paid on butter out of tUo proceeds of higher charges to Australian consumers. He was born at Birmingham, England, of Scottish parents, ar.d after returning to Scotland as a boy, emigrated to Australia as a young man in 1908. He is now in Ms 44th year. He has lived in Victoria since the year oi: his arrival, being engaged in farming, mainly grazing, about 40' miles north of Melbourne. He was elected to the House of Eepresentatives as member for Gippsland in 1922, in which year he was also president of tlTe Victorian Farmers' Union. Z Sir William Glasgow, who wa"§ born in 1876, comes of a family of glaziers in Queensland. He was elected,-to the Senate ill 1919, and again returned at tho elections in November. He has had a distinguished military career, both in the South African' suid late wars. He served with the Light Horse iif. Gallipoli, and was given command of the 13th Infantry Brigade in 1916. ■ Later he had command of the Ist Australian Division, and wa3 made a Majqr-Gcn-eral in June, 1918.