PRIME MINISTER AT WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13648, 16 January 1908, Page 6

PRIME MINISTER AT WORK.

BUSIEST MAN IN NEW

ZEALAND.

THE VALUE OF SYSTEM.

[BY telegraph.— CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Wednesday. The Prime Minister has been ' unburdening himself to the Post about his daily round. This morning he had 250 documents of various kinds to deal with before 10 o'clock. " Sufficient for the day is the work thereof is Sir Joseph's golden rule. He does not allow things to Accumulate and overwhelm him. The documents keep pouring in. If they are neglected for one day they remain to make the next day's burden very grievous. The Prime Minister abhors arrears, his temperament leads him to be prompt, and " clean down decks" each day, so that his mind will bo free for the morrow's events. Two or three times a week he is up with the lark, and by six o'clock he is in his study demolishing his pile of tasks; that is the beginning of a 12 or 13-hour day of official duty, and his secretaries work with him in relays.

Sir Joseph is not a slave-driver, Necessity may make him invoke assistance early in the morning, but he takes care that his assistants have no more than a fair share of the strenuous life. He squeezes in breakfast somehow, and goes to his office at the Government Buildings at 10.30. There he is interviewed by heads ot Departments on important matters, which require discussion before decisions on them can be reached, and there are other interviews before 12.30.

To-day Sir Joseph was listed for 14 appointments. People from near and far seek speech with him on all manner of topics, which they regard as vitally important to themselves or the country at Large. Some of the persons who desire to approach the Prime Minister have very crude ideas about the demands on his time. They imagine that all they need to do is to take the telephone, whisper to a secretary, and have the way cleared for conference with Sir Joseph. The Prime Minister is booked up like an express train, and cannot run into sidings. Appointments must all be made ahead. At cue o'clock he escapes home for lunch, and-at. two o'clock or so he is back at his office with an abundance of tasks awaiting him. These keep him moving vigorously till about 6.15, and then he retreats to Awariia. but the day of 'work is not yet done. A secretary conies to his office at seven o'clock, and there is a bout with telegrams and other urgent matters that, have arisen between five o'clock and seven. The chief dictates replies for half-an-hour, and after that he' has a little leisure to look at his family, if the telephone will permit him. The telephone starts early and ends late. It is only by a systematic attack on his tasks that the Prime Minister can hope%to get any peace at all. A man who did not tackle these multitudinous duties with a clear head would soon be struggling vainly beneath an avalanche.

Sir Joseph,' who is described as the busiest man in New Zealand, is not a lover of night-work. He believes -rising early, to meet the foe and conquering it by nightfall. When he leaves Wellington by train or steamer he does not vary his system of coping with his duties. The work chases him he has it sent after him. always. His luggage includes bulky packages of papers for perusal whenever deputations are not waylaying him.. When he stepped off the Tutanekai the other day three hampers of documents which he had been handling came after him. Every day the mail brings him letters from persons who desire advice on all possible and impossible subjects. Some of the topics, are very personal, and the answering makes one of Sir Joseph's most difficult tasks. The burden of it is heavy upon him, but it is not bowing him down.

"1 recognise that the life is a very strenuous one," said Sir Joseph. "The work entailed by the position of Prime Minister is always increasing. The number of extra. Departments that have been created in the general interests of the community during the last 15 years has become so great that the growth of the work is simply prodigious, and although one is assisted by active and able colleagues, who have their full share of work, yet under the system there is a great focussing of all classes and conditions of things upon the Prime Minister of the day: and this cannot apparently be avoided. 1 recognise that a great deal more is demanded and expected from one in this position than any one man should be called upon to do. "If there is anything good on," he added, " there is nothing I enjoy more than a visit to the Opera House. However, the stress of work has been so great during the past six months that this pleasure has been limited to about half a dozen nights. There is no peace. That is one of the difficulties of the position."