THE HON JOHN M'KENZIE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12241, 29 June 1900, Page 6

THE HON JOHN M'KENZIE.

RESIGNATION OF HIS PORTFOLIO. REFERENCES IN THE HOUSE. EXPRESSIONS OF REGRET. . ■ [Fbom Out. Corbesfond'ent.] '• WELLINGTON, June 28. The shades were deepening in the House when the Premier rose to make the Minis-terial-statement announcing the severance .from political life of the great Minister oi Lands. As he spoke of the keen feeling the , separation caused ' him, he mastered ■ his emotion with difficulty, and the House listened in sympathetic hush to the lowered, tremulous tones, dwelling,on the.once firm hope that nothing but the will of Parliament and people,, or all-compelling death would have parted from his strong, generous colleague.' As he struggled to accept the decision of tha : t colleague, in the hope that it might be' followed by his . restoration to health and usefulness, the pathos of the scene 'touched every heart. When he read the letter conveying the irrevocable decision, and praying his friends.to use ho pressurt of gentle resistance, the simple, maij-ly character of the writer came before the House, together with memories of hb hopes, his achkivemeuts and strong individuality,. and every one felt the keen regret caused to the clear-isighted spirit at the command of fate to work .no more, in the very moment oi his anxiety to'add to his record of usefulness. The evidence of the hard -fight made by the intrepid'man'to keep on the harness of duty visibly impressed the listening House and galleries, nothing touching them mora than the tender grace of his advice to his col ; leagues, unless it was' the.sorrowful resignation'into other hamds.of tie'-special', work so nearly completed when the mandate reached him. At the same time it was felt that nothing more convincing' has been heard .within those wall's than the message from that bed.of suffering,, explaining and justifying'the system of work which the Ministry had imposed on themselves in the beginning, and had kept to erver since, to. the hurt oi so many of-them. It was received with the deep respect due to so noble a.n exposition of duty, a. fitting prelude • to the unselfish prayer that the work, might go on until this New Zealand of ours becomes what God.intended.it.to.be, the most prosperous country on the face of the earth. In deeper, lower--tones the'- Premier, conquering his emotion by-a mighty effort, passed from-j/he message, the delivery of which had been his melancholy privilege, to his own brief words of eulogy, regret and almost broken hope. The fidelity to duty, loyalty to friendship/ •high; sense of ■honour, great, abilities and strong character of his resigning colleague, to all these he did full justice. His conviction tha.t his estimate of the man would be. shared by the whole House, in spite of differences which now are things of the past, was shared by-every member present. .There followed a short scene of great dignity and pathos. Captain Russell, opening "willingly but sorrowfully" on the Premier's concluding note,' spoke of the many years of pleasant personal acquaintance with him, whose- resignation' he regretted, with whom he had consistently differed in politics, no stress of which had ever caused'a single interruption to tJhe kindly feeling between them. He did justice to his political f oeman so worthy of the best sbeeL " A gentleman, sir, of sturdy, independent character," who had his own ideas, inflexible ever of his duty. He said,-with regretful emphasis, "We shall miss him in this House." He evoked by his few words a thousand memories of the "big claymore," nnd ais he defied anyone not to-be impressed with the strong individuality, vigour, generosity and independence, we all thought .of the sweep of that- mighty ■weapon/Wo had so often admired, and we, too,;like.'the generous Captain, did not know aiiy'man'worthy to take- the place vacated by him. Mr Ward added a touch of pathos by referring to Mr M'Kenzie's- presentiment after the last of his great speeches in defence .of'.his land-policy,' that he would not.address the House again, and he' felt how melancholy was the fact that he had * justified it by indirectly telling the House the story of hie resignation in that brave and noble letter read by the Premier. He concluded an impressive speech by declaring that.the Land for Settlements Act and its great department are the honourabue gentleman's monument. Major Steward took us back with appreciation, reverential withal, to the days when John M'Kenzie began political life> here as the shepherd, from the hills, as he delighted to call himself, and touched with sorrowful grace : the chief points of the success which followed/ Mr Mills gave us the origin of the Minister's land policy by. relating the story be., used often .to tell himself of the crofter families he had 'seen flung out and hbV .the'ibiding'memory -of .'that outrage had nerved him;for the work'he found to do in the New World. Mr Fia;Lman voiced the simple manly gratitude of the farmers towards the man who hadjgi ai>ly baijfe npthe

Agricultural Department for their benefit, and Mr Meredith spoke the feelings of 'the Cheviot settlers who'owed'their happy homes to his enterprising initiative, and of the country when he hoped that this retirement might lead to complete recovery and restoration to useful duty. The following telegram, signed by eighteen members of the Legislative Council, was despatched to the Hon John M'Kenzie this evening: —" We all listened with deep •regret to.the announcement by Mr Walkea in the Council that you had tendered you ~ resignation of office. As the decision i now .beyond recall, it only remains for us t express our sympathy with.you, and thi hope that your health will soon be sufficiently reestablished to enable you to take some part in assisting towards' the great work you have so long been' successfully identified with, as its creator and chief administrator. With united regards and best wishes, —We are, yours truly." The following is the full text of the Governor's memo, to the Premier regarding Mr M'Kenzie:—The Governor accepts with regret the resignation of the Hon John M'Kenzie of the several portfolios held by him, and also of his seat in the Executive Council. He takes this opportunity of expressing his appreciation of Mr M'Kenzie's unwearying attention to the portfolios he held, and especially of ■his ability and energy in the management of .the Departments of Lands and Agriculture. • As Act-ing-Premier, Mr M'Kenzie. welcomed him on .landing in this colony to assume the position of Governor, and the cordial relations therein commenced vhave continued to this day. He sincerely regrets the necessity felt by Mr M'Kenzie to retire from public life." . .

I hear on good authority that the Governor personally sent a telegram of regret and sympathy to the Hon J. M'Kenzie on accepting his resignation, an exceptional compliment. MR M'KENZIE'S SUCCESSOR.

There is much speculation as' to Mr M'Kenzie's'successor in the Lands Department, and already names are passed from mouth to mouth. They have been doing sg for some. time,.and as a matter of fact, as your readers are. aware, Mr Hogg has been prominently mentioned, and is being mentioned again,, as is natural, considering his faithful Services to the party, consistently and long given. Others prefer the claims oi 'Mr - Mills, which are certainly great, but there are two'Considerations which are on the face of things not to be ignored. One is 'that Otago has claims to representation in the Ministry, the other that it is desirable that the Minister of Lands should be a practical farmer. 'l; On this consideration Mr Duncan, of Oamaru, comes to the front. He is a practical farmer, an Otago politician of great experience. He came into the House in 1882 with the Hon J. M'Kenzie, and he has been in touch with him-and his policy ever since. Mr Duncan,• I have reason to believe, will be asked to take the portfolio. I-Jhear it is probable that Mr M'Kenzie's position in the House will be vacant sTiortly. MR M'KENZIE'S LETTER.

The Hon. J. M'Kenzie sent the following | letter to the Hon J. G. Ward:—" My Dear Ward; —You-Know'the state of my health andthe.reasons that have long urged me to |ive'up all official work., We discussed the .whoferposition fully when' 'you 'were here last.- Speaking; for yourself and- your col v leagues,,.- you pressed, me to ■ stay on, -aii-d assured'me that the Party, the House and the'country would willingly wait till my health was restored. Perhaps, this is so; indeed', I have been treated so considerately onlall sides since my breakdown that I can easily believe it, and if there was a reasonable' prospect of a speedy restoration, I should.be willing.to tax their generosity a j while 'longer ;•' but as days have drawn into j weeks 'and weeks into months of illness, j without appreciable change for the better, it has'become plain to me'that I must no longer put off what I wanted to do at first, j and4ndeed would-have done but for Mr Seddon's fear -that jt would embarrass the Government and injure the Liberal Party, j The-position is now changed. If I am mendwg at all L am mending very, very | slowly; and shall-be absolutely useless for a long- time to come. Seddon himself is ill, and .until he gets round needs .all the -help he can : get; Parliament is meeting,;and the work wUI-be;",v-ery',heavy. -• vThus, quite ■-apart--' from ...the.. ' fact; .■that for . , me, person-ally, complete rest ._ from_ work and responsibility is imperative, it is clear tha>t by .remaining a Minister in' name whilst unable to do a Minister's work I am only weakening the Government and party, and. hurting the public interests. I would gladly have stayed on, for there is much I wantedto do, especially in- connection, with land settlement and the consolidating measures I havet had prepared, but they must be left to other hahds than mine, for my duty :u so plain to me that I'shall no longer delay doing it. I should like you to tell tho party what I am doing, and why I am doing it. • For nearly ten years they Eave given me their confidence, and; they 'are well entitled' to mine. You might do it at the first caucus, and.then send the resignation in at tnce. They.will see I am doing the right thing and will, I am sure, generously admit that if as a-Minister I -have not done all they expected it has not been for the .want of will. Let them consider, too, that the' work of a Minister in a Liberal Government is very heavy. When Mr Ballance first formedhis administration we deliberately adopted the practice of going about freely among the people, partly -that they might judge for themselves what manner of men we really were,. and partly that we might judge- for, ourselves what the local wants and grievances really were. Th© settlers have many ~a road .and l bridge, to-day that would not' have been built if I had not been to the spot and seen for myself thait the'work was necessary and proper. This practice, whether right or wrong, has become established., and: I do not think any Govcroment can change it. now. _ _ The people have got used to meeting Ministers freely, and would resent any change that would make them inaccessible. Then, again, we have always given very much time and attention to Departmental matters —too much, it is said, and that we. should leave those things to the undersecretaries. Perhaps so ; but considering; the enormous number of questions and debates in Parliament on matters of purely Departmental detail, it seemed to us to be prudent to try and master them ourselves, and to do it meant long hours of weary work. In view of all these things ■and the .strain they involve, it is little marvel that we break down, as so many of us have done, and as you yourself assuredly will- do if you'don't take care, though you have the advantage over s:me of lis jn being a trained business man. I scarcely know why I say all -this, unless it is to", account

to myself ■ and our friends- • for what, in. spite of .all our.exertions, we failed to achieve. ■ Speaking for myself, and looking back at my nine years andmore of office, I' feel that I have not accomplished a tittle of what I hoped or intended, but the party will, I am sure, believe that if I have not done as much as they would wish, I have at least done all I could, and I confidently leaveit to them to carry on the good work of pro-: gress on broad, Liberal lines, so that New Zealand may become what God intended it o be, the happiest and most prosperous ounfcry under the sun. —Yours very truly, ■> OHN'M'KENZIE.' P.S.—I have been dictating at such length to you that-1 am too fatigued to write to the-rest of the Cabinet, but.you will tell them, please, how 11 thank them, one and all, for the .'cordial way they have taken,my work on their shoulders this long time past. God bless you and them, and give you all a long and prosperous public career-" [Pee Peess Association.] WELLINGTON, June'2B.

The Hon J. M'Kenzie has wired to the Premier, acknowledging the request of the Government Party to" reconsider his resignation, and stating that it is quite impossible for "him to do so. He says that if he gets better he must have a complete rest, which he could not get while holding so responsible a position as Minister of Lands. '