THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1911. CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14849, 28 November 1911, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1911. CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.

There can be no doubt that a change of Government would be an excellent thing for the Dominion. We have but to consider the administration of the various departments to perceive that the Cabinet has lost all vigour and enterprise * and is devoting all its ingenuity to the task of avoiding trouble and keeping afloat. Sir Joseph Ward, in one pathetic plea for a renewal of public confidence, tells us that he has only been Prime Minister for five years while Sir Wilfrid Laurier was Prime Minister for fifteen, so that if we follow the example of Canada we shall not dispense with his services j until 1912. By the same reasoning, if Sir Joseph's successor is the late : Acting-Premier, Sir James Carroll, or the Knight in search of a seat, Sir John Findlay, or the Minister who has nothing to learn, Mr. Millar, or any other of the talented statesmen who form what they claim to be the best of all possible Governments, the country may be expected to wait until sometime in the '30's until it decides that our Continuous Government has had a fair trial. . But while it is possibly true that even another twenty years ,of administrative drift and incapacity might not altogether ruin New Zealand it is positively certain that every year which sees a continuance of the present Administration checks and retards the progress and prosperity of the Dominion. *> So incompetent and incapable is the Administration over which Sir Joseph Ward presides— , with Sir James Carroll drowsing over Nativo Lands, Mr. E. McKenzie fuming over Public Works, Mr. Millar muddling over Railways, Sir John Findlay fussing over criminals, Mr. Ngata nursing the "taihoa" policy, Mr. Buddo assisting to do nothing, and Mr. T. Mackenzie enjoying the sweets of office—that it is not even able to take advantage of the most remarkable series of good seasons known in colonial annals. From the huge annual overflow of the United Kingdom, the Government can induce some 10,000 people to come to this sparsely populated and generally undeveloped country, but it cannot offer inducements to born New Zealanders to remain in their own homeland. As one explanation of this failure it is sufficient to point <ut that Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues do not consider the portfolio of Lands important enough to be assigned to an energetic Minister as his chief charge; Sir Joseph has it packed away in his travelling-bag, with a dozen other petty portfolios, while he concerns himself principally with Finance and Posts and Telegraphs, duties onerous enough to tax the utmost ability of any Minister.

Proof that the public is generally dissatisfied with the ' Continuous Government is to be seen in the attitude of the ; electorates. He would be a bold man who would assert that the plea of the Government for an expression of public confidence is being greeted with anything like the cordiality shown three, or six, or nine years ago. The party machinery, strengthened by the unslackening work of twenty years office-holding, oiled by many hopeful expectations of favours to come, moves smoothly, and effectively. There is no visible evidence in the party parade that the North is dissatisfied with the Public Works allocations of which the most pronounced partisans complain between elections. There is no suggestion from the machine candidates that Sir James Carroll should be relegated to political obscurity or that Mr. Millar is not a magnificent success as a heaven-bom railway manager, or that Mr. Ngata has : less claim to Cabinet-rank than any other North Islander who sits on the Government benches. There is no sign in the machinery that the South Island is sadly conscious of paying too dearly for many advantages and of becoming restive under an Administration

which is plainly missing the flowing tide of national opportunity. Every plea that Ministers can concoct and advance is repeated from end to end of the country; there is a unity and a unanimity—in the.party press and on the party platform—upon more than doubtful matters, which shows to what perfection party organisation may be carried. But the general public is unmoved— is either critical or passive. If the public were only actively critical the result of the elections would be foregone, for the Government has become a byword for its amazing indifference to the public welfare upon questions of vital public importance. But'the prosperity of the Dominion, a prosperity based upon high prices for produce and upon an un-j broken sequence of good seasons, renders the public relatively passive in the face of Ministerial shortcomings, and inclined to accept indulgently rather than resist indignantly the strenuous efforts of the party organisation to maintain its leaders in power. Yet the growing public recognition that a change of Government is the only effective remedy for administrative incompetence can be asserted on election day if voters will exercise their political independence and vote against the Government candidate in .each electorate. The real question is whether the Government is entitled to continuance in office. The party machinery, not the public goodwill, is working strongly to obtain an affirmative answer, but the party machinery is powerless if electors drop all minor considerations and exercise the franchise on behalf of change of Government by doing. all that lies in each elector's ' power to destroy the majority of Government in Parliament.