The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 6, 1882. Cabinet Ministers on Their Travels.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 811, 6 December 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 6, 1882. Cabinet Ministers on Their Travels.

Mr Walter Johnston, in his capacity as Minister of Public Works, has been “ starring it ” in the southern provinces lately. Of course he has met with the usual experiences of severe interviewing and repeated deputationing. In Dunedin and Invercargill especially the requests for favors—or shall we call them demands for justice? —have been urgent ; but every little stopping-place has had a fair innings. To know what to do under such circumstances is one of those fine arts of which a prominent public man now requires to possess some skill. Some Ministers assume the loftily virtuous, or Junius Brutus style of reply, snub the deputationists and inform them that the Ministry will consider the matter, but can promise nothing. This answers very well with a very strong Ministry in very secure places. Others, again, adopt, as far as they can, the method of the late Lord Palmerston, are graceful and courteous, and replete with information of every kind except the particular reply that is asked for. This is, for common purposes, the most successful style. Some few, like Mr Larnach, in the Grey Administration, promise everything to every town in succession, and then take good care to be far enough away when the time comes for performing. Then, lastly there are some, like Mr Johnston, who appear to be perfectly frank and liberal into the bargain ; but their words have two meanings, and the one to be acted upon is not that which is generally understood at the time. At Christchurch, in the matter of the West Coast Railway, this was practised with entire success ; but, unfortunately, the Railway Commission arrived just afterwards with a very different tale to tell, and then the deputationists had to exclaim, like Bunthorne, in “ Patience,” “ hollow, hollow, hollow ! ” There are purists in politics who contend that all this word-fencing between Ministers and constituents ought to be stopped, and that it is utterly undignified and demoralizing, and that the Ministry to a man ought under all ordinary circumstances to be stuck fast in their offices at Wellington, uncharmed by the voices of the charmers, charm they never so wisely. Well, we are not so sure about that. New Zealand is a wide place, about a thousand miles long, and many Cabinet Ministers until they are installed in office know next to nothing about the wants of any locality except the one in which they may happen to have settled. How are they to know what various parts of the colony are like, unless they look at them? Now how are they to know what the people want, unless they cross-examine them on the spot ? Even the Supreme Court Judges go on circuit to different places every few months, and it would be certainly inconvenient for suitors in their Courts if they were always to remain at the seat of government. Or, to take an instance still more closely analogous, in mining cases on the goldfieds nothing is more common than for the Court to be adjourned in order that all the parties concerned may visit the spot to which the dispute refers. And it is certain that it • is the general wish of people that Cabinet Ministers should visit the various localities under their jurisdiction from time to time. Sir Charles Duffy, who made use of these visitations more copiously than any other Cabinet Minister in Victoria, before or since, always retained a large share of the popularity he acquired in the remote parts of the colony, by his eagerness to get information, and his readiness to afford it to others. The Argus condemned him strongly, but there is no doubt that the people at large liked it. It has certainly had one great advantage. It has enabled him on his return to his own country to deliver the most instructive lectures on Victoria that have ever yet been given by any returned colonist. Of course, it very frequently, in fact almost always happens, that at some places Ministers are asked to promise what is not in their power to grant. They are sometimes

required to state that such and such a sum of money will be placed on the estimates for repairing a court-house, or improving a harbor, or making a railway line. Such requisitions should at once be refused, because the subjects are properly within the sole adjudication and control of Parliament, not of any particular minister. But, on the other hand, a Minister may often find a new light thrown on some subject with which he is imperfectly acquainted previously by people on the spot, and in that case he may take notes and promise enquiry. Or, without compromising himself at all, he may give information as to the times and circumstances of changes coming into operation, or of works being begun, which information may be of great utility to be known in the locality where the enquiry is made. These are matters usually within his own'control, and subject to his own convenience, and it may be very advisable the public should know what he personally intends to do. On the whole, we should not like to see the custom of Ministers visiting various parts of the colony abolished, but it would be better for the country if they were more reticent of definite promises than they sometimes are.