POLITICS AS THE ARE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 79, 16 March 1912, Page 5

POLITICS AS THE ARE.

CABINET MAKING

MR. MILLAR AS SIR JOSEPH WARD’S SUCCESSOR.

[PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.j

Wellington, Marc?. 15

A Dunedin suggestion that the leadership of the Liberal-Labour party had been allocated to Mr. Millar was mentioned to the Prime Minister on his arrival in Wellington i’tom the north to-night. Sir Joseph Ward said : "The position is exactly as I indicated to the House. 1 have not changed the opinion 1 arrived at and publicly stated. The suggestion that I made equivocal reference as to the colleagues to be selected by the new leader has no justification. I have had one opinion all along—namely, that the new leader w’ould select his own colleagues, and I have never at any time suggested that the new leader should be hampered m his selection by submitting his prospective Cabinet to a caucus meeting. 1 have been communicated with since my arrival here regarding the suggestion that I was Likely to hold a portfolio in the new Ministry, but I should like to git e it an emphatic contradiction, as I have no intention of doing anything of the kind."

CIVIL SERVICE CLASSIFICATION. Wellington, March 15.

Yesterday was the last day for receiving objections to the provisional classification scheme diawn up by the Civil Service Classification Board. “Objections," says the “Post,” "came in the shoals by every mail, and the secretary of the board was practically ‘snowed under’ with protests. Petitions of protest to the Government are being sent in from the officers of some departments. The opinion is freely expressed amongst members of the public eervice that thev would prefer the establishment of a civil service board rather than see the proposed classification, or anything like it. brought into force. The question has arisen as to whether the expenses of officers coming to Wellington from other districts will be paid by the board. The Act apparently contemplates the right of personal appeal to the board.

MR. MILLAR DECLINES TO

SPEAK

Mar. 16.

The Hon. J. A. Millar passed through Christchurch this morning on his way to Dunedin. He was asked if he had anything to say in view of the persistent re pert that he would be the new leader cf the Liberal Party, but he declined to discuss the subject. He was reminded that his position was a matter of great public interest, but he persisted in his refusal to speak.