THRICE PRIME MINISTER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 524, 3 June 1909, Page 6

THRICE PRIME MINISTER.

NEW DEAKIN MINISTRY. (BTTSLSaBAFH—PBESB ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Rec. June 2, 7 p.m.) Melbourne, Juno 2. The third Deakin Ministry, representing the Deakin-Cook fusion, has been sworn in. The portfolios are allotted as under: — Prime Minister: Mr. Alfred Deakin. Minister for Defence: Mr. Joseph Cook. Federal Treasurer: Sir John Forrest. Attorney-General: Mr. P. M. Flynn. Minister for Customs: Senator Sir Robert Best. Minister for External Affairs: Mr. L. E. Groom. Minister for Home Affairfl: Mr. G. W. Fuller. , Postmaster-General: Sir John Quick. Vice-President of the Executive Council: Senator E. D. Millen. Honorary Minister: Col. Foxton. ADJOURNMENT DIVISION. MINISTRY HAS MAJORITY OF SIX. (Rec. June 3, 0.25 a.m.) Melbourne, June 2. In the House of Representatives, Mr. Deakin, Prime Minister, announced the names of the new Ministry, and moved the adjournment of the Houso to June 23, to enable the Government to formulate its policy. After. a couplo of hours' criticism of the Deakin-Cook coalition and of the pabinet by the Opposition (Labour), Deakin's motion was carried, the voting being:— For the motion ... 28 Against the motion ... ... 22 Government majority ... 6 • The Senate was counted out while discussing a motion to adjourn for three weeks. AN IMPERIAL FIGURE* Mr. Alfred Deakin, now Prime Minister of Australia for the third time, has been barrister, journalist, orator, and politician, with

conspicuous brilliance in> all departments. He is a native of Victoria, was born on August 3, 1856, and was educated at the Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne, and Melbourne University. He was called to the Victorian Bar in 1877, and soon became a prominent politician. Elected as 11.L.A. in 1879, he was Minister of Public Works in.the Victorian Cabinet —1883, Chief Secretary 1886-90, Minister for Health 1890, and afterwards Solicitor-General He made a study of the irrigation question, and in 1887 visited England as a Victorian representative at the Colonial Conference. He strongly advocated the Federation cause, and pursued his profession -as a barrister with marked success, in 1900 ho again visited England; representing Victoria during the passage of the Commonwealth Act. He became Attor-ney-General in tho first Commonwealth Ministry under Sir Edmund Barton as Prime Minister,, and on the retirement of the latter in 1903 Mr. Deakin succeeded him. His administration was defeated in April, 190 i, but he again became Prime Minister in July, 1905, and represented the Commonwealth at the Imperial Conference in 1907. In November, 1908, the Labour Prime Minister, Mr. Fisher, succeeded Mr. Deakin. Now Mr. Deakin succeeds Mr. Fisher.

When Mr. Deakin resigned last November the hope was expresed by "The Times" that Mr. Deakin would soon return, with his ener-) gies renewed and his' health restored, to'the service of his country and of the Empire. "He is the one Australian statesmap," said "The Times," "who, like Sir Wilfrid Laurier in has the ear of the whole. Empire equally with that of his own countrymen. Whatever, form his activities in the future may take, he will'always speak with a special and recognised authority upon the leading issues of Imperial policy." Leader of tha"old Opposition." / Mr..Joseph Cook was described last year as "deputy leader of the Opposition and of the Free-trade party in tho House of Representatives." Whether "Free-trade party" mil continue to be an integral party of his title since the Deakin-Cook fusion is'not clear. He ceased to be "deputy," and became full Leader of the original Opposition in November last, when Mr. G. H< Reid resigned. He has been described as an able debater,.and he has had a long Parliamentary experience. Starting in the New South Wales Assembly as a Labour member in 1891, Mr. Joseph Cook severed his connection with-the Labour party as a result of his refusing to sign the caucus pledge. That was about two years after his election, and during a t™, r cftrs ™s in the New South Wales Assembly -hie was twice a Minister—PostmasterGeneral in the Reid Ministry from 1894 to 1898, and Minister for Mines and Agriculture from 1898 to 1899. In 1901 lie entered the -trf / .Parliament for , Parramatta (N.0.W.), which 6eat he has represented ever since/ and since August, 1905. Mr. Cook was born. at Sirverdale, Staffordshire, England, in 1860, and began lifo as a coalmincr. Arriving in New South Wales in 1885, ho obtained emplpyment at the Lithgow coalfields. Two years later he was appointed general secretary of the Miners'.Association, and it-was as a Labour member for Hartley that he entered politics. ' Sir John Forrest's Anti« Socialism. I SiT John Forrest has had & lengthy' career as explorer, surveyor, and politician/but, in view of his inclusion in the Third Deakin Cabinet, it is his.role in recent Federal politics that counts. He was Postmaster-General in the first Federal Cabinet in 1901, was Minister for Defence from January, 1901, till August,. 1903, and was Minister for Home Affairs till April, 1904. In tho Second Deakin Cabinet, he. was Treasurer—beine also v Acting-Prime Minister during Mr. Deakin's absence in England at the-Imperial Conference—but on July 30, 1907, he resigned the Treasurership, on the ground that as an anti-Socialist ho could not follow the Government to the extent to which it . was then going in order to secure tho support of the Labour party. Now, with a DeakinCook anti-Socialist Administration, Sir John Forrest returns to . the Treasurership, Simultaneously,. Sir Win. Lyne, the New Protectionist^, who succeeded Sir John Forrest as Treasurer in Second Deakin Cabinet, now greets Mr. Deakin's third attempt with cries of "Judas !'• Sir Robert Be«t, under the Second Deakin Ministry, was Vice-President of. the Executive Council and Leader for the Government in the Senate. He has been Senator for Victoria since 1901, and the placing of the portfolio of Customs in the Senate is an interesting development in' view of the tariff differences that have operating against. the Deakin-Cook Sir ltobert was born at Fitzroy, Vic-toria,-in 1856, and '.was called to the Bar in 1881. .and was a member of tho Turner Ministry la ViotorU jDriot • to Fcdor&fciwL