RUDDERLESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 13015, 30 June 1906, Page 4

RUDDERLESS.

New Zealand has had a long experience ' of the benefits cf one-man of the benefits of one-man government. Jt is now getting an object lesson in the draw- ' backs to the system. Ostensibly we have a. Ministry in of file, but Parliament Las'., to adjourn for nearly two months because a single individual is absent from the ' colony. Nobody, of course, could expect that, so soon after Mr Seddon's death, thenew Premier would be prepared to go ' straight on with the business of, the Legis- _ lature, and as Mr Massey made plain terday, every reasonable latitude -wOuldhave been given to the lafe - Premier's** successor to find his feet. No objection/ would have been raised, said the Xeader',' of the Opposition, to an adjournment for a fortnight or three weeks, which would have been ample time fop the of the Treasury benches to gather tSeir ,' wits about them if. ihey had meant, to, take their-duties seriously. ,i „ statement in <the opening of Tarl&meai^thW ?jtl£'HJfcr '" Hall-Jones, undertook' Ministry, which -sis now in office," ' eatmotf ihave deceived anybody. A Ministry ri» , office which'' is unable to -carry on. Vscf* Kament is surely something entitetyTWvel / in the jray of Ministries, and if pazdejT,' had been at.all'evenly balanced, Mr Kalk Jones and his colleagues'might have been- ' relieved of the resrwnsjbuities with wblclr '*< 4jhey are either unable or xwxnSspg rr to^"' cop* ' The Premier—perhaps it would be*? more correct to 'continue _ the use -of his recent' title of Acting-Premier— repeated' " yesterday 'his remarks about hi* "tedfngs' of honour and so> forth-. People ate no 1 doubt getting used to these protestations, '"f Tint whatever credit they may do to Mr \i Hall-Jones's > reputation for .disinterested- -, ness and* to an absent friend, we 1 do not know that they justify him * in" blocking the whole business of the coun- ' I try's Parliament for a period of nearly twe months. It seems to us that he has a right to' consult something else tfiair _ ■- his own feelings of honour and' loyalty which, he said yesterday, were jt3» only' factors by which he Had been guided.