THE PERIPATETIC MINISTRY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1447, 23 May 1912, Page 6

THE PERIPATETIC MINISTRY.

"WE WOBK EVERY MOMENT." The Prime Minister (Hon. T. Macken-' zie) maintains that the work of administration is not suffering through the frequent absences of Ministers from Wellington. "I can assure .you," he stated yesterday, "that if we accepted ten per cent, of the urgent requests that arc made to the Prime Minister and members of the Ministry we would never bo in Wellington at all. There is an. intenss desire 61 th» part of the people outside Wellington 1o seo Ministers, in order to place before ■llicm the almost innumerable matters that demand attention. No less than : twenty telegrams asking me to attend various functions within the next two or 1 three days are to hand. Those are for 1 myself alone; other Ministers are, I am ' sure, in much the same position. It is . absurd to supposo that we are anxious to subject ourselves to the wear and tear • of continual travel, especially considering I the enormous amount of work that has „ to be done in connection with the work ' of administration, nil 1 ; it must not be supl posed that wo are shirking our work when , wo move about. We work every moment j in the train and every spare moment at . other times. Tho work goes on just the I 6ame, whether wo are in Wellington or anywhere else."