NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1928, Page 11

NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL

SHADOW OF ELECTION MINISTERS. ABROAD. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, March 12. Ministers who returned during the week-end from their electioneering excursions in the South Island express themselves as being better pleased by their receptions than they had expected to be. They were prepared to find some definite indication of th© “revulsion of feeling” against the Government of which they had heard so much, some of it from their own political friends, but, as a matter of fact, they had been received as cordially in both Canterbury and Otago as they had been on the eve of the last general election. It was true that they had heard something of the insular jealousies which always exist, usually without any reasonable foundation, and that they had been told of th© rapid growth made by the Labour Party; but these were not new stories, and, said on© complacent Minister, “they are not causing us any serious alarm.” The truth of the matter probably is that the travelling Ministers did not put themselves In the way of ascertaining the disposition of that great army of voters who are not yet talking politics. SAMOA. The announcement of the iciue.acu: of Sir George Richardson from the. administration of the Mandated Territory of Western Samoa has set many tongues wagging concerning New Zealand’s associations with tho Pacific. The Prime Minister’s explanation of the reason for Sir George’s retirement, telegraphed from Invercargill on Friday, is not satisfying a sceptical public. “The selection of General Richardson to represent New Zealand at ■Geneva,” Mr. Coates informed the representatives of the newspapers, “is the reason which prevents his re-appointment as Administrator on the expiry of his present term of office.” So much was duo to Sir George in view of recent criticism, but a curious public wants to know what Sir George’s duties at Geneva will be, and what are the particular qualifications required for their discharge. There also, of course, ar© inquiries about the salary attached to the new office which th© great uninformed will insist upon regarding as a mere sinecure. The gossip concerning the general’s successor in Samoa has Sir Apirana Ngata on the list, but the Prime Minister decrees that gossip must await “an announcement in due course.” ANOTHER RETIREMENT. Mr. F. J. Jones’s retirement from the position of chairman of the Railway Board of Management “as from th© end of the current financial year this month” has occasioned almost as much curiosity, and even more speculation, than has Sir George Richardson’s retirement from tho administration ot Western Samoa. Mr. Jones Is a capable and popular officer, considerably below the customary retiring age, and the public again wants to know why his services should be lost to the State. Curiously enough it was common talk In Wellington that was to go a week oi two before the announcement of his desire to be relieved. “Whether or not this development will mean a complete change of th© personnel of the board is not yet known,” says the Dominion In reviewing the position. At the street corner, however, one may hear that the whole administration of the railways is to be overhauled, and that the process will entail drastic changes in the management. No indication of anything of the kind has come from official quarters. STILL ANOTHER.

Still another retirement of very considerable importance from th© Civil Service was announced on Saturday. The Hon. O. J. Hawken, the Commissioner of State Forests, let it be known that Mr. L. Macintosh Ellis had asked to be relieved from the post of Director of Forestry and head of the New Zealand State Forest Service. Mr. Ellis retires in order to return to consultative and directional forestry and forest engineering work with private and proprietary forest enterprises in Australia and New Zealand. It is another ease of private enterprise outbidding the State for the talents of a distinguished expert who has demonstrated his worth to the commercial world. Mr. Ellis was appointed Director of Forestry in New Zealand in 1920, and since then has rendered invaluable services to th© Dominion in organising and controlling the machinery and administration of the Stat© Forestry Department. The lesson for the Government, and Indeed for the community, in the loss of Mr. Ellis, is that the Dominion should train its own experts,' if necessarily and not depend. upon importations,