The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1912. THE CABINET OF ALL THE IMPOSSIBILITIES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1402, 30 March 1912, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1912. THE CABINET OF ALL THE IMPOSSIBILITIES.

Already, within twenty-four hours of the announcement of his new Ministry of all the Impossibilities, the •Hon. T. Mackenzie is thinking out tho problem of reconstruction ! What does the extraordinary Ministry, tho extraordinary circumstances of its construction, and the extraordinary discontent (amongst serious men) and laughter (amongst the frivolous thinkers) mean but that we have all been right who have maintained that nothing could come of the attempt of a discredited minority to carry on tho national government save an epoch of fantasy and farce? And what fine farce there is, and what frantic fantasy ! A Ministry whoso chief is placing tho land question in the front of his professed concerns, and yet a Ministry which is divided into two almost equal groups holding deadly opposed views upon a fundamental agrarian issue ! A Ministry whose chief is where ho is through his adroit handling of his dread of Radicalism, and yet a Ministry whoso members arc again hopelessly divided between wild Radicalism _ and a sensible moderation ! There is indeed hardly a public issue that does not find the members of the Ministry on opposite sides. What does, what can, Euch a Ministry stand fori What does it hope to do 1 Why does it exist? Wo by no means believe that the now Prime Minister's purpose is simply to enjoy his post and his salary until ho is thrown out of office: Mr. Mackenzie may sincerely believe that there is hope for a Minis-, try of alt tho Impossibilities. He is so busy with the shabby little problems of his shabby and scrambling party that he has no time even to think out for himself, much less to tell the public, what in tho world he does hope or expect to do. For the present, of course, Mr. Mackenzie could hardly bo expected, in his excitement over the mad turn of Fortune's wheel, to see what the public sees very clearly, namely, that he is whero he is, and has the Ministry he has, simply because the "Liberal" party has lost its rudder and compass and is mainly composed of office-hungry men. In an interview we print to-day, Mr. Herdman, while expressing his amusement and amazement at the position of the new Prime Minister, and his conviction—which _ everyone must share —that the good intentions of Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Myers must wither in the atmosphere of "the Ells, the Laurensons, and the Colvins"—suggests that Mr. _ Mackenzie's declaration of policy is something to wait >for with eagerness. It certainly is, but we fancy wo shall wait in vain for anything better than platitude. Tho new Prime Minister, when questioned last evening by one of our representatives regarding several matters of really urgent public importanco, replied that his Ministry was "too young" to have come to decisions upon thoso questions. Yet it is not too young to have begun to consider its own reconstruction! No grievous harm, perhaps, will result from the shelving by the Government of all its public duties in favour of the duty of keeping breath in its body. As .wo have said, it is possible to sympathise, in a sort, with the new Prime Minister's opinion that his battling, with tho waves of circumstance is the only battle that ought to matter. In a few days, we should say, Mr. Mackenzie will begin to see the situation as the nation sees it. And what does it see 1 It sees a beaten party, miraculously saved for the moment from wreck, struggling to retain office without any moral means of staying in offico—a party without any policy founded on principle, without a programme that is at all practicable, without any majority, without any cohesion, and without any better guarantee against ruin, even at the best, than tho support of men known to be pledgebreakers, and, therefore, men as ready to assassinate as to save. This is the.party that is to hold office for at least three months, and, in offico, to exercise all the powers that could do exercised even by a Government concerning whoso grasp of Parliament's and the nation's confidence there could be no doubt. A party that has no unifying principle, that dare not embrace any fundamental principle; a party torn and pulled by the liquor and anti-liquor interests; a party professing'concern for the sound and safe guardianship of rural and industrial interests, but dominated by the enemies of the farmer and of the urban employer; a party amongst whose leaders arc men like Mr. Laurenson, Mr. Russell, and Mr. Hanan, who made themselves conspicuous by their virulent opposition, during the last Parliament, to every movement _made_ by tho friends of clean administration. This is the New Zealand Government.

Wo are not being rhetorical, but are expressing our feelings with genuine candour—and they cannot but be the feelings of a majority of the public—when we express our wonder that Mr. Mackenzie, _ whose intentions are doubtless _ quito good, cannot see that his position is an impossible one. Ho says he desires "to give the practical substance, and not the party shadow" —which is a nasty one for Sir Joseph Ward—and that he believes "the people will appreciate a party that will quietly and resolutely settle down to doing the work the country requires done." How can his Ministry and his party "quietly and resolutely scttlo down" to do anything at all 1 There is nowhere any common ground upon which they can take their stand, and the nation which voted last December for reforms and for the checking of the Socialistic drift of "Liberalism" will refuse to be paltered with. What the Spoils party has to fight is, not Mr. Massey and his colleagues, but, as Mr. Massey pointed out at Stratford, the Eeform sentiment throughout the country. That sentiment we can safely leave in charge of, the situation. In the meantime the new Ministry is already threatened by one of the best-informed of the leading "Liberal" journals with the defection of some of its supportters. Will such a legacy as men like Messrs. Payne, Robertson, Atmoee, and Ism be accounted by the new Government a sufficient consolation for the estrangement of Mn. Millar and his friends and of Mr. R. M'Kenzie? The member for Awavua still controls tho Spoils leadership. It i 6 ho who mado the present deplorp,blo oitufiUon possible, for uo womb

his wounded vanity.;- and his attendance at the. first meeting of the hew Cabinet was liardly needed to assure the public that the new Ministry will naturally tend to perpetuate the abuses of "Liberalism."