A MISPRAISED MINISTER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1216, 26 August 1911, Page 14

A MISPRAISED MINISTER.

Sir,—The Hon. T. Mackenzie is indeed a mispraiscd Minister. In tho proverb of his own country, lie is always dancing about "liko a hen on a.hot girdle," •and as the hen cackles'whilo'it dances, so'lie keeps talk,'' talk, talking, wherever lie goes; and, again, to borrow from his national proverbs, it is always tho same ■ old "cauld kail hot again"—the perennial platitudes of a man who does not know ■ what ho is talking about. For what ' does Mr. Mackenzie know of agriculture? i His lifelong experiences have been on cnl tirely other lines, and he rushes round s and talks too much to be able to master . so great a subject by study. So it comes ) that though his Department costs the , people. i£700,000 odd a year, the country does ) not get a third of that value in genuine - downright assistance to agriculture—tho s paramount industry of the land. t , It is positively scandalous that this i should bo so, and it i* sickening to rend - the twaddle that has been written about ) Mr. Mackenzie's present. district—tho j Taieri—having been wiped out by the j Electoral Boundary Commissioners, especi- - ally as Mr. Mackenzie himself is no doubt 1 glad of the fact. Ho was not in tho least - likely to havo been re-elected, as the i practical farmers of tho Taieri havo long . been tired of his oracular nonsenso on - agricultural subjects, of which he knows X nothing wortli knowing, through either r practice or theory. Any constituency that 3 elects him while he is Minister for' Agri- - culture will, therefore, assuredly inflict, n t grievous injury on the country's ero'atest industry. Poor Mr. Fowlds, as Minister 3 for Education, is in deed a misfit, but , Mr. T. Mackenzie, as Minister for Agri--3 culture, is breast to breast with him in 3 that respect—to tho mockery of statecraft i and tho country's grievous loss.—l am, - etc.. PASS THEM OUT. s