QUALIFICATIONS OF CABINET MINISTERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 966, 5 November 1910, Page 3

QUALIFICATIONS OF CABINET MINISTERS.

Sir, —Kindly allow m®. to endorse all that your correspondent, "A Bhezt, has said of the utter want of trainingor business qualifications on the, part of the heads of the great Government Departments in New Zealand. 'II seems incredible that a "Sailorman"-. from abroad should have the control .of , all the railways in the Dominion. In. fact, tho only man in the that lias received a proper training for the control of his Department is the Minister for Justice, Dr. Findlay. ' Can. anyone be surprised to find that unrest ;' and discontent prevail from one end of New Zealand to the .other, and-that, stagnation is general everywhere.. The extensions of the franchise and-other so-called reforms have given the con-. trol of the Government into the ..hands,' of the very lowest class in the country.. Ilese remarks apply :to Australia in even a greater degree. One of the new caucus-elected Ministers of ;. the-ft-own in New South Wales, who is personally known to me, is said .to l>e unable to write anything beyond his name. His wife has to conduct his correspondence. Yet he is given control of a large Government Department, ; and a salary but of the public taxes of £1300 per year. He has "kissed , the blarney stone," and has also the "gift of the gab.". Outside of Parliament', he could never earn more than "£3 per.; week, if so much, as far as business is concerned, as he wais, and is, simply' a labourer. Another' new Minister in the- same Government is also known to me. He was the most rabid, blustering and disloyal of the pro-Boers during the last South African war. But perhaps the most topsy-turvy appointment made by the Labour caucus to the 1 Government, of New South Wales is the placing of the great Education Department in the hands of a carpenter. —lam, etc., , - ' V TAXPAYER. November,!, 1910. , :

OLD SOLDIERS' CLAIMS. Sir, —The Maori War veterans are intensely disappointed and indignant at, the callous contempt shown by the Ward ; Cabinet for their too-long-delayed petition for a small pension in recognition' of their good service forty years ago. Indifferent to the recommendation, of the M to Z Committee of the House, and the favourable speeches of maiiy; members, of both sides in Parliament, ; Sir Joseph seems 'determined to "force theso old veterans take the charitable aid of the Old Ago Pension Act, in-. stead of the honourable military pen- ' sion that is their due'by every civilised ■ standard. Every veteran' of the Indian Mutiny now living is entitled to a special Imperial pension for their, mutiny service, in addition to any other . pension they have, and'surely those mfe'n" • who fought ait Poverty Bay immediately after the massacre there in 1868, ought, to receive a similar recognition of the' work they did. The actual additional cost of the pension asked for would be only four or five hundred pounds .a year, fallowing for tho amount that would', cease to be claimed under the Old-Age-' Pensions Act) —a mere "drop in the ocean" of tho personal extravagance and waste of public money by the Min-' • istry in vote-hunting.—l am, etc.. CRIPPLED N.Z. SOLDIER.