SIR THOMAS BENT'S DEFEAT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13843, 24 December 1908, Page 10

SIR THOMAS BENT'S DEFEAT.

AN IGNOMINIOUS CLIMB DOWN.

Some light is thrown on the fall of Sir Thomaa Bent by the Review of Reviews, which, writing before the defeat of the Ministry, prophesied its early collapse. The Victorian Premier, we are told, had been endeavouring to "run" the whole Government, with the result that the administration had been drifting into a state of inefficiency. The restlessness of his followers was developing into open insurrection, and Sir Thomas did not conciliate them by his complete surrender over the Land Valuation Bill. This measure, which may have been intended as the preparation for a new system of land taxation, was stoutly resisted by the country party, and Sir Thomas was told plainly that he must withdraw the Bill. Moreover, he was warned that only the reconstruction of his Ministry could save him from defeat.

"His climb down," says the Review, "was characteristic. His withdrawal from his position was even more complete than his greatest "political antagonist could wish. He both withdrew the Bill and reconstructed the Ministry. Then Sir Thomas Bent made what to himself might have looked like a successful move, but was in reality one of the greatest blunders of his political life. H.e took into his Cabinet some of those whose general principle* had been very strongly opposed to his own. More than that, in his blunderintc Sir Thomas Bent made one crowning blunder. There was in the Cabinet one man who stood out from all the others for signal ability. Mr George Swinburne has been the most prominent Ministerial success of the Cabinet.

. . . Mr Swinburne was the strong man of the Ministry. On several occasions since he took office the Bent Government has been saved from challenge and defeat because of the presence of Mr Swinburne. Respect for him, and a desire to keep him in office, to allow him to do the excellent work that was growing under his hands, kept the tongues of critics silent many a time. And Sir Thomas Bent let him go." The Premier, it seems, sacrificed Mr Swinburne "to placate officeseekers and to save his own skin.'* He could have carried his Land Valuation Bill, because the Labour Party would have supported him, but when he withdrew that measure he added the hostjlity of the Labour members to the hostility of the country party, and his downfall was certain.

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