TWO YEARS IN OFFICE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 124, 30 May 1927, Page 10

TWO YEARS IN OFFICE

MR. COATES'S ANNIVERSARY

10« V n" ?8\ t0; da* on 30th May, 1025, Mr. Coates took office as Prime his Cabinet were sworn in at Govern?Hm T e' .Slr ?rancis Bell ha<» been Prime Minister sinco Mr. Massey's Pafrv*^ ffv' •»■"«•«»« Reform Party could be held to choose a successor. When the meeting was held the unanimous choice fell upon Mr Coates. Shortly afterwards he was sworn vn. His Ministry at the time wM h^ 8t/ n, tiaP y the same as ««at which had held office with his predecessor, and it was not until some time later that new Ministers— Messrs. Hawken, Rolleston, Williams, Wright and- Young—were appointed. There have been other changes in tho Executive Council sworn in with Mr. Coates. The Hon. IX H. Guthrie has died and Sir James Parr has been appointed High Commissioner for New Zealand It is interesting at this stage to recall a few sentences from the statement issued by Mr. Coates when he assumed offlee. He emphaaUed then the necessity for atnet attention to the business side of government: "Only by judicious care and foresight in getting our finari- "?! f»»Bd»t>oiw»" he said, "is it possible to devote the necessary attention to all our citizens. -It is the Government's aim to give all classes of the people an equal opportunity in life by assisting the effort, of each citizen in nig or her natural vocation, and with a will on the part of all the results we desire can be obtained. New Zealand occupies no isolated position. We are part of a great-Empire in which the life and conditions of all are very closely linked. Only by united work can our objective to improve those conditions be achieved, and I have no fear that the aid I seek to obtain from tho people as a whole will be lacking. "I hold very strongly the convictions I have briefly touched on, and I shall earnestly endeavour to give practical effect to them in my administration. I shall at all times welcome healthy, constructive criticism. I feel that I can, from the warm expressions or goodwill extended to me from all spheres of public life, confidently look forward to a sympathetic consideration towards the effort* of the Government in promoting the prosperity of New Zealand."

After issuing this statement Mr. Coates carried on the Government for one session wiith the support of a party elected to the leadership of his predecessor; but at the end of the year he faced the electors and his selection by the Reform Party was endorsed by the people with a majority unknown since the zenith of Liberalism.