Reconstruction.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7826, 28 September 1903, Page 2

Reconstruction.

The debate in the House on Thursday night, although it was a gross waste of valuable time, enabled a number of Government supporters to plainly indicate to the Premier their dissatisfaction and the dissatisfaction of their constituents with the dummy Ministry with which Mr Seddon has surrounded himself. In the ideal democracy, of course, the invariable rule would be thaj; only the best men—the most shrew^ and capable njen - (jould find thei^ way intp. Cabinef;. In' New Zealand the fashion has grown up of giving politicians this sort of preferment, not]for capability, but for adaptability. Thus we see at the head of affairs the Duncans and the Mills's, the Hall-Jones's, the McGowans and the Pitts, most estimable gentlemen all, but none having the faintest pretensions to statesmanship, and, worst of all, having an extremely limited administrative capacity. It flatters the " Prime Minister" to be absolutely " top dog," and to be the be all and end all of everything; but it is bad for the country. It is bad for a country which is chiefly dependant on its agricultural and pastoral interests to have at the head of the liands Department an anachronism and an administrative makeshift like poor old honest, blundering, slow-witted, casual Tarn Duncan. Even the " Prime Minister" has realised this, and tiring of the wonderful stodginess and weariful ordinariness of this patriarchal stopgap, tried to gej; rid of him last fall, but the ancient Southerner liked the acorns in the Ministerial trough too well, and when, eventually, the dictator began to stir him up with a long pole from afar, he showed such a formidable array of tusks that Sandow got skaky and decided to leave the job for someone 'else to do. The incident is laughable but the results are pitiable. With a live and enterprising man at the head of agriculture, New Zealand would be able to hit up her developmental policy for all she was wprfch, As jfc is, all departmental initiative is stifled, and all departmental projects fall stillborn from inertia..