"RACTICAL MEN" AS MINISTERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 737, 9 February 1910, Page 4

"RACTICAL MEN" AS MINISTERS.

-The:pnblic .has long been familiar with fcne policy of .what may. be called the "personal intervention" of Ministers!; It is many years since the then leader, of the Liberal party realised the vast'possibilities, that lay m encouraging the idea that Ministers are experts in. the-'details of the matters covered by their portfolios. Unable, very often, to perceive any.' other, reason why .this or that man should be elevated to" Ministerial.': rank, an ingenuous and charitable public was quite'.ready to believe .that the explanation was to be found in ;the['practical•"knowledge"/ of the pew ; Ministerial : recruit. .A district wanting a pillarbox, and utterly unable to persuade, the Departmental . officials of the urgency, of the case, would not, ..so t was.perceiyed.by-Ma; .Seddon,' be likely, to .believe;.that the Minister who was at last'induced to.visit' the locality . 'and■-'-. who. promptly granted the request of the. inhabitants,, was/'affectea 'by : anything;'but the '■.justice of the claim apcl.his blunt but penetrating appreciation: of the needs of the case.V So, for years,: no .request ■ has.been too trivial'. , to- bring, the'iMinister concerned hot-footj.to the'! scene. ..Mb lave had Sir /Joseph Waed travel-' ing in state to decide questions; relating to the appointment of a .postal': cadets the Minister for Bailways attending in person-,to-the problem of renovating.the pprtx. era , room at.a sub-metropolitan railway, station, and so on. / Out of this policy has; grown up a vague belief ;hat the; Ministry is.a Ministry..vof"practical men.' , . Me. Millae's experience as a worker, makes him an ideal head ; of the' Railway Dep'artjnent: the Minister for.Public Works has :the skill inevitable , ' in a: gentleman ;with some;.experience of contracts;., the Postmaster-General has the supreme qualification of being a practical telegraphist; the Minister for .Native Affairs understands . the feelings, of. the Maori;'which are naturally more important than the needs of the l nation.'; The idea does not : lack. nurture by some'of ■' the newspapers, and by some newspapers that.ought to know better.- '.■;■' .: ;■;■:>• _' An r excellent. example of the , way' in which the idea is encouraged is afforded by a recent paragraph in the Otdgo Daily Times relating to the : Hon., T. Mackenzie, who has already been acclaimed as; a practical' man. for his exploits as an explorer, and, more recently, for. his investigation into the state of the Southland wekas.. We wish we had-space to" give the paragraph'.in full. ■';,. lt gives, in; exhausting detailj an account of "an incident" winch' ,, is to bo .-understood as illustrating, "the advantages which may bo expected to follow on .'the possession by a-Min-ister of the Crown, of. a thoroughly practical knowledge of the . affairs which are governed by his' particular Department." Glade House, it'appears, has received its supplies, of meatr and :;other' commodities from Lumsden. . With, the-.acumen of a practical man, Mb. Mackenzie per-, ceived the disadvantages 9f this state of things, and he "gave , instructions that some eleven acres of.bush land at Glade House, were to be cleared in order:,to, provide ground "on which' sheep , and /a ' cow-'could' be" run, , whereby both mutton and _fresh milk conld be obtainable at first hand." One might/suppose that the. Minister had then dono all that could be asked-of him. It,appears, however, that the caretaker "lacked the necessary experience" in' bush-clearing: "He started to fire the area, but seeing' that. Glade. House itself was ; in danger of being destroyed, he'very hurriedly extinguished the flames with buckets of water." 'And there the scheme would have ended if the Minister for Agriculture had been a mere theorist.. The other day, however, Me. Mackenzie arrived on the scene, and "decided to demonstrate to. the caretaker and others the correct way in which to fire the bush, and it was hero," as the Otago Daily Times admiringly points out, "that his practical knowledge was brought to bear." To cut a long story short, the firo, despite the unjustified ana disloyal fears of the onlookers "that wholesale destruction was to' follow," was so carefully handled, that it resulted, in a splendid- burn. Me. Mackenzie, no doubt, will wonder how the Otago Daily, Times came to print its account of what was after all a very little thing for'him; The vest of us, while sharing his wonder how these fellows get hold of, news, will agree that the incident is a> sort of justification for the not very intelligible elevation of Mb. .Mauken-. zie to. Ministerial .rank. -.■; Ho is a practical man in at least one branch of industry.', We; should be inclined to , protest against the pious chronicling of the humble'heroisms of our practical- Ministers, were it not that in.time this result may be brought about: that the public will liftcin to

realise that the nation lost a good telegraphist, a useful minor contractor, and an expert bush-burner in exchange for an iridifferent Prime Minieter, Minister for Public Works, and Minister for Agriculture.