WHAT IS IT?
Some few years ago the Government with a blaze of trumpets announced their intention of setting up a department of Trade and Commerce, and soon afterwards the Department was there. The Hon. J. G. Ward is responsible for this show,-and he was the first Minister for Trade and Commerce. Now that the Government Buildings . know him no more officially, we pre- I
surae the portfolio is held by Mr Seddon. The idea of the Government in setting up this Department was no doubt good, and it could and should have been made useful; but unfortunately they appear to have blundered in their appointment of officials. We believe Mr Amelius Smith is the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Commerce ; and *ve believe he gets a good salary. Mr Smith is a very estimable gentleman, a good fellow, a courteous and obliging official and all that sort of thiug, but just exactly how he came to be Secretary of the Department of Trade and Commerce we cannot discover. Like the fly in the amber, we wonder how he got there. This Department must be quite two years old, if not more, and w y e cannot call to mind anything good or useful that has emanated from it, or how it has served the public. The only notable event in connection with the Department is that it ran itself for about six months while Mr Smith was in England. Now we are far from despising the value of the Department of Trade and Commerce ; indeed in a young colony like New Zealand it is absolutely necessary ; but to be of any use to us there must be very different management. Mr Smith with all his amiable qualities should be fired out, and somebody competent to attend to the .complex business of the Department appointed in his place. The Department has had the dry-rot since the day of its inception, and is neither useful nor ornamental. It costs the colony a few hundred pounds annually, and as it is now managed it is not worth the proverbial tinker's malediction. We want this department, and we want it to be a live department, and we trust the Government will give it a shake up.
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Bibliographic details
Hastings Standard, Issue 323, 15 May 1897, Page 2
Word Count
375WHAT IS IT? Hastings Standard, Issue 323, 15 May 1897, Page 2
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