DOWN TO BUSINESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20825, 2 July 1942, Page 2

DOWN TO BUSINESS

WAR MINISTRY FARM LABOUR NEEDS MR. MALAGAN'S POSITION (P.R.) WELLINGTON, this day. Proceeding straight to important business after its new members had been welcomed by .the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, the War Administration departed from strict orecedent by inviting a private member of the House and a departmental head to its sitting so that the question of man-power on farms could be discussed with the full knowledge which these outsiders could provide The former War Cabinet was also constitutionally easy going because oT its desire to get a first-hand knowledge as it regularly included the chiefs of the fighting services in its deliberations. The settling down process for the new Administration discloses some interesting features. So many Ministers are now in the House of- Representatives that Mr. Speaker had to consider the formal method of calling upon them when they desire to address fellow members. To call "the Minister of Supply" might result in both the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, and holder of the portfolio, and the Hon. Adam Hamilton, the associate Minister of Supply, rising .to take the opportunity. Solution of Problem The Speaker, the Hon. W. E. Barnard. has solved the little problem by deciding to call each Minister by his surname. Mr. S. G. Holland and his supporters in .the War Administration are following the example ol the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates and the Hon. Adam Hamilton as members of the former War Cabinet by continuing the use of their Opposition seats Thus.. Mr. Holland s.till uses the seal officially allocated .to the Leader oi the Opposition and so far there hasbeen no sign of a rival for his peacetime position. Are there many people in New Zealand who have refused the invitation to become a Legislative Councillor? One, at least, can be named for it is an open secret that the Hon. A. McLagah, president of the Federation of Labour, was so reluctant to enter .the Upper House as a preliminary to becoming a member of the War Administration that all the bn ins of the Crown's legal advisers were working at high pressure for a few days to provide some alternative constitutional method of taking an outsider into the Cabinet. Mr. McLagan seems to have maintained his objection .to the very last moment. However, he became both a Legislative Councillor and a Minister during the same afternoon. He took the oath of allegiance required of a councillor yesterday, but is unlikely to .take an active interest in the council proceedings. He is a believer in industrial unionism, not political action where it can be avoided, and it was represented to him .that his attitude raised a very difficult constitutional point that he agreed to become one of New Zealand’s nominated members of the Legislature and then only with the reservation that he can resign immediately his War Administration appointment terminates.