THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926. MINISTERIAL RECONSTRUCTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19691, 19 January 1926, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926. MINISTERIAL RECONSTRUCTION.

Mr Coates has gone less far than it was expected and hoped he would go in the reconstruction of his Government. He might with advantage have strengthened it by the selection of fresh colleagues to replace the less efficient of the present Ministers. That, however, is a task which he has reserved for another occasion—“in the near future,” to quote the expression in a statement that has been issued by him. He has contented himself in the meantime with making three appointments, two of which are to fill the vacancies caused by the death of Mr Massey and by the resignation, which now takes effect, of Sir Heaton Rhodes. It is not precisely dear how the third vacancy has arisen at present, although we can surmise the explanation. In the selection of two members from the North Island and one from the South Island, Mr Coates has been faithful to the political custom, which has been to attach a great deal of weight—possibly too much weight—to the desirability of balancing the representation of different parts of the country in the Cabinet. His first choice seems to have fallen on Mr F, J. Rolleston. It is a choice that disregards the fact that Mr Rolleston has been too independent in speech and action to be a docile follower of the Government. It is, however, the best choice that Mr Coates could have made. It is arresting, moreover, since it restores the connection between the Rolleston family and the duties of administration of the affairs of New Zealand. Mr F. J. Rolleston’s father, M jr William Rolleston, served for five years in what was known at the time as the Continuous Ministry, successively under Sir John Hall, Sir Frederick Whitaker, and Sir Harry Atkinson, and it was his distinction that ho was responsible for the preparation and enactment of the first comprehensive Land Act of the Dominion. Mr William Rolleston was one of the best type of New Zealand statesmen—he was no mere politician ;—a man of high culture, of wide knowledge, of broad human sympathies, who was greatly honoured throughout the country. But it is not simply the shadow of a great name that Mr F. J. Rolleston brings into the Cabinet. There was no private member of the last two Parliaments who commanded in fuller measure the attention and the respect of the House. Possessing a trained, judicial mind he examines a question from all its aspects before he forms his conclusion regarding it, and when he has done that he expresses his views in clear and cogent terms that impress even when they may not convince. As we have indicated, he has not given unfaltering support to the Reform Government in the past. He has, in fact, been a candid critic of it on important points of its policy. For the reason that he considers the reduction of the war debt to be an urgently desirable step he has opposed the remissions of taxation to the end that surplus revenue should be applied to the redemption of loans and he has been a steadfast opponent of the policy of the conversion of the leasehold tenure of Crown lands into the freehold. He will introduce almost a Radical element into the Government, such as may perhaps disappoint the wise people in the community who have thought fit to regard the Reform Administration as hopelessly Tory in character. By his abilities as a debater Mr Rolleston will prove a tower of strength to the Government in a respect in which it has unquestionably become comparatively weak. No private member of the. Reform Party in the North Island has revealed better qualifications for office than Mr J. A. Young, the member for Hamilton, Upon a former occasion when a Ministerial vacancy had to be filled Mr Young was rather unaccountably overlooked and there is no reason to suppose that he will not justify the appointment which he has now received. He has been a very painstaking and hard working member of Parliament, and it may confidently be expected of him that he will bo an exceedingly methodical and industrious administrator. The process of delicately balancing one consideration against another, which seems inevitably to enter into the construction of a Cabinet, must have determined the Prime Minister’s third choice in favour of a member identified with the producing interests and representative of a rural constituency. In this eVent the selection will have been narrowed down to two or three, and the appointment of Mr Hawken may be accepted as a recognition both of the faithful service which he has rendered to the Reform Party and of the fact that the Taranaki provincial district has furnished a solid phalanx of supporters to the Government. Mr Hawken’s qualifications are less apparent than those of either Mr Rolleston and Sir Young, but it is unlikely that Mr Coates’s judgment in placing the departments of Agriculture and Forests under his care will prove to have been at fault. Sipce additional Ministerial changes are in contemplation it is probable that the allocation of departments to the now Ministers is provisional only, as that of Sir Downie Stewart to the office of AttorneyGeneral may be assumed to be —in this latter case, pending the appointment of a Leader of the Upper House in succession. to Sir Francis Bell who, it will be noticed, is to remain a member of the Executive Council. The important announcement is made that Mr Coates has satisfied himself concerning the need for the creation of a new department, the Prime Minister’s Department, with the intention that the head of the Government will be released from particular departmental responsibilities and bo thus the better enabled to bestow a general oversight over the administration of all the departments. Hie decision on this poiut raises considerations of various kinds, as Mr Coates makes clear in his statement, hot it has a great deal to recommend it.