MR BAVIN’S BURDEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 25

MR BAVIN’S BURDEN.

STRAIN OF OFFICE. NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTRY. (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, April 25. It was a siek-looking, irritable, nervous man, burdened with the cares of office/ and broken in physique on the grinding wheel of politics,; that the New South Wales Premier (Mr Bavin) left for London last week, in the search for renewed health. That men will cheerfully sufferthe sling and arrows of public criticism and sacrifice the comparative quiet and more substantial rewards of private professional or commercial life for the strenuous rough-and-tumble of politics, is amazing. The position is accentuated when, as in the case of Mr Bavin, they take their political jobs seriously. Without social leanings, although • bis ■ wife and family move in Sydney’s smartest and most exclusive circles, Mr Bavin has practically no interests outside of politics, if one excepts fishing, and he rarely finds time nowadays to indulge that eport. To find him glued to ■ his office chair on public holidays is not at nil uncommon. If he goes to the races it is only to meet the social demands of his office. He has unquestionably sacrificed his health on the altar of public life. _ And, rara avis among politicians, he is paying for his trip abroad out of his own pocket. It is only an exemplification of the man’s high motives, for the average politcian can invariably find some excuse for a jaunt abroad at tlm expense of the country. More effective in opposition than as Premier—in the latter post he largely has lost ground because of the Government's taxation measures-—Mr Bavin will probahl.V find himself off the Treasury benches at the next election, but he will have the satisfaction of knowing that, according to his lights, the best he could. Mr Bavin has never courted cheap popularity, and that, so' far as self interest'is concerned, does not pay in political life. One of Mr Bavin’s lasts acts before packing up his troubles and leaving for London was to fill a vacancy in his team m a general reshuffle of portfolios. The new'Minister, Mr Weaver, a .tall young man of massive physical proportions, and with a voice as loud as that of Stentor when he us in a fighting mood, in the House, will fall the' comparatively unimportant post of Minister of Mines and Forests, but he will be an acquisation to the team. As a speaker and . debater, Mr Weaver is at his best in the atmosphere of a first-class . political crisis. With the somewhat rare political attribute of sturdy independence as ,a party man,’ Mr Weaver has been as ready to thunder a pinilppic against the very men with whom he now sits in Cabinet as against the Opposition. Ha is one of the few men in either of the State Houses ever worth listening to. His defence of Mr Bavin ju the House recently on a notable occasion when quite a lot of political mud uas being thrown about and his sweeping indictment of the Labour Party, constituted one of the finest examples of parliamentary oratory in the history of the Mate. Even if he finds his ardour somewhat restrained by the responsibilities of office, Mr Weaver will be a source of strength" to what for the most part is a mediocre team. The promotion of the ■Assistant Treasurer, Mr Stevens, to the lull rank of Treasurer, is yet another step in tne meteoric.- x’ise of that comparatively young man, for it 13 only a little more than a year ago that he retired iroin the public service, as one of the hwh treasury officials, and entered Parltament as a political fledgling. To-dav, in addition' to holding one of the most responsible _ posts in the Cabinet, he is vested with the political control of the otate railways and tramways. '