MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14773, 29 November 1915, Page 4

MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

The time is not. yet when the constitution and administration of the National Cabinet can bp discussed with any freedom. It is a huge eX|K‘iiment to which Die country is committed and the public is accepting tho inevitable with admirable selfsTestraint and loyalty. But there ire some developments from tho snspendon of party hostilities which can bo mentioned without any impropriety. One of the most striking of them is the increased responsibility of individual Ministers. By common consent, or perhaps by common necessity, each member of he Cabinet is looking after the .affairs of his own departments with only the lightest regard to the affairs of other lepartmeuts. Doubtless Ministers are in frequent consultation, seeking advice .from oiio another when occasion arises; but to all appearances the Minister in harge is a veritable autocrat iu his own domain. Mr Massey, of course, is head if the Government by tho unalterable decrees and precedents of the Constitnion ; hut each of his colleagues is master m his own house. .Sir Joseph Ward is mpreme at the Treasury without any question from anyone; Air Allen will olorate no interference with Defence, and Mr Russell takes his own way just as i matter of course. This may not be an undesirable state of things; indeed, It. seems to go some way towards realising the idea of an Elective Executive, without an election : bat the largely ini creased personal responsibility of Ministers will have to be remembered when the achievements and failures of the Naiona! Cabinet eomo to lie realised.