LANCINGS FRIDAY, JANUARY 18. 1988. A COMING MINISTER.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 914, 18 January 1918, Page 8

LANCINGS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18. 1988. A COMING MINISTER.

Here ehal the Press the People's right maintain Unawed by principle and unbribed by gain; Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw Pledged to Religion, Liberty,and Law

Mr. Guthrie on Land. SO Mr. Guthrie is Mr. Massey's pick for the Ministerial vacancy which will occur when Mr. Herdman retires from Parliament and dons tbe wig of a Supreme Court Judge. Mr. Guthrie/ it will be remembered, was the Free Lance's "pick" some months ago. He .is not a brilliant man, but he knows what the farming community wants, and in him they will have as staunch a friend in the Cabinet as the Prime Minister himself. The appointment proves, once again, that Mr. Massey learned his politics in the Seddonian school. With "King Dick," party allegiance always came uppermost as a- factor in Ministerial appointments, and just as Mr. Seddon put Mr. C. H. Mills, his Senior Whip, into the Cabinet, so Mr. Massey chooses the gentleman who has battled so long and arduously in the lobbies, the Government Whip's room, and elsewhere, to keep the "Reform" flock together and in the right path. *• * * * Whether Mr. Guthrie is the sort of man to distinguish himself by any really statesmanlike grip of the problem of land settlement is very doubtful. We are afraid there is little of the Sir John McKenzie about the member for Oroua, but until the war is over his chief duties as Minister Lands will be to say "ditto" to the Departmental heads. After the war the land question will be a burning one and a much stronger man, a man with a much greater . originality of view than Mr. Guthrie possesses, will be required. For the time being, however, he can, do no great harm. All he has to do is to "hold the fort" as it were until the completely changed conditions of oxir financial and economical position, which will be brought about by the ending of the war, must result in something like a revolution in our methods of land settlement.