A NON-PROGRESSIVE MINISTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17190, 6 November 1923, Page 8 (Supplement)

A NON-PROGRESSIVE MINISTER.

The Hon. J. G. Coates, with his numerous portfolios, seems to be carrying too much weight, to use a sporting phrase. The Tailioa policy seems to have him in its grip, and he lias given very little satisfaction to any of the Canterbury deputations that have waited on him. On the subject of the Waimakariri scheme, on which lie seems determined to block the City Council, we shall have something to say after examining Mr Birks’s figures in detail; hut probably the most unsatisfactory replies were given to the railway deputation that waited on him. Mr Coates dismissed the proposal to electrify the Lyttelton tunnel by declaring that a necessary preliminary to electrification was duplication. In this the Minister has shifted his ground. In Parliament last session he tried to make out that Mr Evan Parry was opposed to electrification, and it was only because Mr Parry was in the country, anil was able to give a definite assurance that electrification was an “ absolute necessity ” that the Minister shifted his ground. Then again,,what can lie said to the Minister's inane objection to cheap back-loading rates on the Midland line? Here is a line unique in New Zealand, including a tunnel which is the longest in the Empire, and on which the Government has had to spend a small fortune, and yet when it is proposed to put the line on a business basis to meet the unique freight conditions existing between the two provinces, the Minister says that Oamaru, Timaru and other lines will ask similar concessions. The reply shows a complete lack of business acumen, and it will certainly not be tamely accepted by the business community or. the people of the two provinces. -