MARKING TIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17724, 8 March 1921, Page 4

MARKING TIME.

The selection of Mr. Coates as Minister for Native Affairs would be regarded with satisfaction were it not that he is already heavily burdened and that the circumstances of the appointment suggest that the Prime Minister is merely filling a gap. When Sir W. H. Herries was farewelled Mr. Massey gave a very broad hint that a place in the Ministry would be kept open for him. That place is apparently to be the portfolio of Native Affairs. From the point of view of loyalty to an old colleague there is something admirable in this; so far as the despatch of the country's business is concerned it is wholly wrong and reprehensible. There was in the retirement of Sir William an opportunity for approaching the Maori land question from a new angle, a chance to break from the Carroll - Herries tradition of " taihoa M and to show the native landowners that both their interests and the interests of New Zealand | are being ill-served by the policy of | keeping land out of use. This is a work which cannot be done in the odd moments which Mr. Ooatea will have to spare after he deals with the problems of public worses and hydro-electricity, and the innumerable details of Post Office axiministration. When the Defence portfolio was vacant Mr. Ooates himself quite wisely said he had no time to attend to it. In these circumstances it seems unlikely that he will be able to do more than mark time in the Native Affairs Department, or that anything else is expected of him.