MR MASSEY'S LOAD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18434, 14 June 1920, Page 6

MR MASSEY'S LOAD.

In a. recent issue the Wellington Government organ publishes a column of matter summarising tho many things tho Prime Minister has had to do during the last six months, a record which we are invited to admire because "tbfe Prime Minister has been carrying a very heavy overload since the elections, and has had all too little preparation for the business of the session." Everyone will agree'with the "Dominion" that Mr Massey has beon overloaded, and will feel sympathy with a Prime Minister who has been striving to keep pace with the multifarious duties involved in holding tho portfolios of Finance, Labour, Railways and Industries and Commerce, to say nothing of the presidency of the Board of Trade, buf no one with any ooncern for the welfare of the country can be expected to find t\\e spectacle an edifying one. Of Mr Massey's energy and activity there can be no doubt, hut were he as agile as the proverbial one-armed pnperhanger with the itch he could not he expected to do even the barest justice to any one of the important Departments which he is supposed to guide and,control. Political friends and opponents.alike are agreed in impressing upon the Prime Minister the necessity for tho utmost care in administration during the next year or so, in order that the errors of the past may ho corrected and tho torrential outflow of public money throttled down to reasonable dimensions, but hew can there be careful administration and patient thrift when several of the Departments of State; and these among some of tho most important, are in charge of a Prime Minister who is not even a

" half-timer " in respect to thorn, but more accurately a one-fifth or one-sixth timov? If Mr Massey adequately discharged his duties as Prime Minister, without a siuglo additional responsibility, he would havo his hands full, and that statement involves no derogation whatever of the Reform leader's ability and capacity for work. Under present conditions there are increasingly numerous evidences that the interests of the country are suffering because Mr Mnssey is attempting to do far too many things at once. While the Prim© Minister is manifestly oveiburdened,' others of lus Ministerial team are carrying very light loads. A readjustment which will relieve Mr Massey of Railways, as the " New Zealand Herald" suggests, or of Finance, as the " Otago Daily Times*' considers urgently necessary, or preferably of both is long overdue. The point we desire to make is that while Mr Massey may be willing to carry an over-load of portfolios and work, this is really quite unfair to himeelf and to the county.