The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1883. The New Ministry.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1067, 6 October 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1883. The New Ministry.

The re-construction of the Ministry, consequent upon the retirement of the Hon. Mr Whitaker from the post of Premier, has caused the Auckland people to cry out that now no member from that part of the colony has a seat in the Cabinet. The old cry of provincial representation has been raised, and some of our contemporaries have exhibited a highly virtuous indignation in denouncing a principle which, if

carried out, would limit the head of a Government in his choice of a Ministry, by impelling him to consider the claims of certain localities. The object, we are told, should be to obtain the best possible men for the different governmental offices, without regard to where they happen to hail from. It must be admitted that as a general principle the contention cannot logically be gainsaid, but it is a somewhat curious fact that the indignation we have referred to should have found its loudest voice in Otago. In former years no other province in the colony was so strong an upholder ot the necessity for provincial representation, and this sudden change of front is to say the least of it rather astounding. Let us see how the present Ministry is formed. Taranaki, Marlborough, and Canterbury each contributes a single member to the Cabinet, while the balance is made up with two representatives from Wellington and two from Otago. From this it will be seen that the latter province has good-reason to be satisfied with the present state of things, and can well afford to reprove Auckland for the narrow-minded view she has *taken. We cannot help wondering if the Southern press would have shown the same feeling if Major Atkinson had displaced Messrs Dick and Oliver, and given the portfolios they now hold to two North Island representatives. And yet it is generally admitted that the Colonial Secretary and the Postmaster-General are distinctly the weakest points in the present Government. Nor does it require a very severe effort of the imagination to pick out of the House men who would fill these positions far more worthily than their present occupants. However sound we may consider the principle of selecting the best men for the highest positions without regard to anything else but their fitness for the places they hold, while the examples we have quoted are to be found in the present Ministry, Auckland is not altogether to be condemned for the attitude she has assumed.

The truth is that when Mr Whitaker retired, the present Premier did not make the best use of his opportunity. Then was the time for a complete redistribution of portfolios, and if this had been done the Government would not have been weakened, as, under existing circumstances, it has undoubtedly been. What, it may fairly be asked, has Mr Oliver ever done to warrant him being made a Minister? It cannot be said that during the time he had the control of the Public Works Department he showed exceptional brilliancy, while his duties as an unsalaried member of the Cabinet seemed to be limited to dancing attendance on the Governor, when the latter was making his first tour of the the colony. If there is any advantage accruing to a province from the fact that it has two representatives in ithe Government, we fail to see why Otago should have that advantage, unless the members chosen possess some transcendent merit to warrant them being singled out for special favors. At any rate it is easy enough for the Southern press to condemn thfe system of provincial representation frpm which they have hitherto derived so much.benefit, for if Messrs Dick and Oliver do not owe thtir present positions to the following out of the very principle that is now so hotly deprecated, it is difficult to see why they are members of the Government.