THE ART OF CABINET MAKING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12930, 28 July 1905, Page 6

THE ART OF CABINET MAKING.

the premier and his

COLLEAGUES.

STRONG REMARKS" BY MR. T. E.

TAYLOR.

POLITICAL '"MARIONETTES" AND

" TOMTITS."-

[BT TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Thursday. Advantage was taken of the debate on Sir William Steward's Elective Executive Bill last night by Mr. T. E. Taylor and other members of the " New Liberal" party to indulge in some very plain speaking regarding the present personnel of the Ministry, and the obstacle which, in their opinion, is placed in the way of Cabinet reconstruction by the system of government by party. Mr. Taylor, who spoke in the late stages of the debate, said that the present system of party Cabinets made it possible for a Premier to say to a supporter, " I will make you a Minister because you are the sort of man I want; because I am all-suffi-cient; because. I am omnipotent. I am big enough for the whole job, and I want a number of pigmies around me who will only servo to accentuate my. personal qualities and strengthen, my position. I select you because you have not got the ability to challenge my actions, even if you have the inclination." The Premier had worked Cabinet construction on this plan. He knew the men he selected, and it worked out all right for him, but they cost the country, in some instances, just ten times as much at least as they could earn in any other business. Mr. Fisher: Political marionettes. Mr. Taylor said he did not like to hurt any person's feelings, and he would not use such a term, but the condition of things he had described should not be allowed to continue. He did not know whether some members of the Government party knew, but if they did not they ought to know, that the Premier had on more than one ocoasion held the resignations of every member of his Cabinet in his pocket for months, and they were to be used if the general election gave such evidence of his wailing power, or of a widespread dissatisfaction on the part of the country, as made it necessary to use them for the purpose of preserving his own individual power. Neither the electors nor Parliament had the power to get rid of an individual Minister, and they had to continue to keep in responsible positions a number of men who had got the general administrative ability possessed by a large number of casual clerks, who worked for 10s a day in the Departments under their' charge. He asserted that the Premier did not appoint the present Minister for Railways, who was not the stamp of man that he coveted as a colleague. There was no doubt that that Minister came into the Cabinet because of his commercial experience, and because of pressure from outside sources; but, with that one exception, was there a single man in the Cabinet who could, by any stretch of imagination, be termed a strong man? An Hon. Member: The Minister for Customs.

Mr. Taylor: Well, there is no satisfaction ill saying any more about the Commissioner of Customs than lias already been, said. I think, the hon. member for Dunedin, ill summing him up as "an amiable inefficient " has just about described him from ato z. (Laughter.) ' / THE PREMIER AND HIS SHOW. In the course of some further remarks, Mr. Taylor said': "How frequently do we see in this House after a Minister has got up to make some explanation about his own Department that he is waved down by the Premier, and .the Premier stands up and usurps the Minister's place, and makes an explanation that lie has 110 right to make at all? How often does the Premier introduce a Bill that has printed at its head the name of one of his Ministers? It all means that the Premier realises that it is the only safe thing to do in regard to the management of this House. If the Minister for Railways is not handy, the Premier cannot go away from New Zealand. He cannot go to a dance at Government House with any certainty that he will find his party in existence when he comes back. We. know well enough that the Premier wanted to go Home to the Premiers' Conference a few months ago, but he could' not, because the Minister for Railways was not in the mood for taking charge of the House again for a prolonged period, and there was no other Minister who dare be left with the show for five minutes, for fear it should break to pieces." (Laughter.)

NO PLASTER TO BE TOLERATED.

Mr. Taylor went on to say "I am quite sure that the country will not be satisfied with any temporary plaster being, placed upon this Cabinet, in the shape of the admission of one or two of the abler men who have so far been ignored by the Premier when Cabinet making. 1£ the Premier thinks ' that for five or six years he can insult the intelligence of the House by surrounding himself with a number of executive marionettes, as the lion, member for Wellington called them, and ■ then, when distress is in view, he can seize upon one or two men in his party who have ability as well as character and use them as a sort of Cabinet plaster, as a little ointment to be applied) to the sore that has been complained of so much, he is making the greatest mistake of his life." v THE PREMIER AND MINISTER FOR MINES. Mr. Taylor then referred to a speech mode a few months ago 'by the Minister for Mines. The Premier, he said, took his colleague to task, and in a speech which he (Mr. Sedclon) made in the South he put the whip across the Minister for Mines, and actually told an audience of miners that any remarks made by the Minister for Mines were open to revision. He told the people to whom the Minister for Mines had spoken that parsimony as practised by his colleague was not economy. The Minister for Mines passed it, took it lying down, and said lie liked it. (Laughter.) When this happened a number of newspapers wanted to know whether the Minister for Mines would stand such an indignity, and retain office. But he did 1 both, and he liked it. There were a number of members on -the Government side of the House who knew perfectly well that what he said was the truth, and if they had the courage they would make a change very quickly. CAUCUS PROCEEDINGS. Mr. Taylor said that when the matter of Cabinet reconstruction was brought up at a recent caucus, what'was done'! 1 The very men whose incapacity was so constantly "a use of complaint were arrayed at the caucus, and then the Premier practically paid: " If you want a change in the Cabinet say so now." There was not a man at the caucus who had the courage to stand up and say this man or that man is incapable. That was the Premier's method of protecting his colleagues, and the caucus adjourned, nothing being done. Mr. A. L. I). Eraser: Was that this session? *■', Mr. Taylor: There has been no caucus this session. I am pleased to think that if some action is taken this time the lion, gentleman will stand up as executioner. Mr. -Fraser; You are misleading; there was no caucus this session. , Mr. Taylor: Sir, I am sorry, but it seems that the hon. gentleman does not want to' do anything. He does not want to be the executioner of the incapables he complains of. We have occasionally from the hon. gentleman a Waimangu outburst of independence. He fires away, and we are all alarmed at what the consequences are likely to be to the Ministry, but we have the same thing session after session, and nothing material ever happens from the hon. member for Napier. In his concluding remarks, Mr. Taylor said that no man had the right to bolster up his personal interests agd aspira-.

Hons year after year, as the Premier was doing, by surrounding himself with a number of political puppets. , The Speaker said that the hon. member was not justified in using such an expression, and lie must withdraw it. _ Mr Taylor said he would withdraw it, and substitute the termpolitical tomtits," which the Minister for Customs had lately used without being challenged. The Premier, he said, had no right to surround himself with a set of political tits," who, by their insignificance, bolstered in the ambition and selfishness of the Premier. REMARKS BY MR. BEDFORD. Mr Bedford, who spoke earlier in the debate, said that if the present party system could inflict upon the country such a Ministry as the one we had at the present tune, it was time that system was got rid of, because the position was simply that the money of the people was being paid to men who could not properly discharge the duties of their office. What right, he asked, had the Premier to put his hand into the Treasury and pay a- salary to a member 01 his party whom he had chosen for the Cabinet because of his unfitness? The Premier, he said, singled out the weakest men of his party, and filled them like a bird stuffed for a museum with shreds and scraps of Seddonian stuffing. He virtually said to them, " You are paid a good salary to do what I tell you; to speak when I tell you; to keep silent when I tell you; to do exactly what I wish." That was what the present Ministry had come to. He thought it was time that the country realised that it should no longer tolerate the existence of such a Ministry. Mr. Bedford went on to say that it was an insult to the intelligence of the House to say that it could not elect a more efficient Ministry to administer the various Departments of State.