WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1925, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

HON. DOWN IE STEWART. MAKING GOOD HEADWAY. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON. December 22. It is pleasant to lie able to state that the lion Downie Stewart, the Minister of Industries and ( ommeree, who went South last night, to spend the Christmas holidays with his own people, continues to make satisfactory progress towards the restored health even his political opponents tire ardently wishing him. IDs treatment has been a tedious process, marked by ups and downs that have been discouraging to his friends, but the patient himsell never has lost faith in his medical advisors nor in his powers ol recuperation. To his own cheery optimism, no doubt, he owes the improvement he has made during the last two or three months, lie has been bearing his full share of Ministerial responsibility sin-e his return from America, and he was at a Cabinet meeting yesterday looking as eager and alert as ever. In a brief chat last night iust before he joined his steamer he encouraged no allusions to current politics, but the general opinion here is that in -the reconstructed Cabinet, which is expected early in the New Year, he will be Minister of Kinance as well as Minister of Industries and Commerce, lie was -Mr Massey's locum tenons at the Treasury during his leader's last absence from the Dominion and continued as bis chief’s associate in the office till he left on his health cisit to America. No other member of the present Parliament on his own side is as veil qualified to handle the finances of the eountrv. lIFS FIRST lilG .1011.

The Prime Minister’s statement of r week or so ago Unit the personnel of the reconstructed Cabinet would not be announced till after the holidays may not have been intended to moan that Lite information would he available early next month. "After the holidays.” is a very indefinite measure of time and the Minister is under no obligation to be in a hurry. The political gossips, however, having been bus;, with recoil traction themselves, are declaring that Mr Coates will find it the first really big job he ever has undertaken. The magnitude of Ids majority at the polls, won by the iteration and reiteration of the declaration that he was the mail that took his coat off and did tilings, is going to be, these authorities predict, the greatest peril besetting his task at the present juncture. Had he returned with a majoritv of ten or a dozen his path would have been a comparatively smooth one. and he would have been required to dc nothing very heroic, lie. at nuv rale, would have been able to consult with ilit* Opposition and. conceivably, could have asked one or two members on Ibe other side of the House to join him. Hut with a majorii.v of beiweeii twentylive and t Dirty, even Cue mail who takes bis coat off and does things may hesitate to trifle with the victors' spoils. It remains to bo seen it Mr Contes will do more than the gossips expect him to dare. SOME SPEC!'CATIONS.

Without any authoritative statement oil the subject it seems to lie generally expected here that when Mr ('antes has completed his work of reconstruction it will he found I hat four of the present Ministers, in addition to Sir Francis Hell and Sir llealoii Rhodes, who are understood to he holding office only nn■ lil their successors are appointed, have been retired. Assuming this expectation to b<’ correct. Mr Coates lias to find six new colleagues, even it he has made no his mind to get along, as well lie might do. with a Cabinet id ten. • lust what the Prime Minister's course will be. in an extremely delicate and difficult position. mu.,t remain lor the time being a mutter ol ionic, turo: but it ha- to tie rent;.inhered that bis pres-

cut colleague-, si'- 11 <• t "I hi' ooi « boo--iit-.-; and llial there i' ample precedent for any changes lie may lie contemplating in the personnel of the Cabinet. The gossips have no difficultc in naming three uf the present .Ministers who may join Sir Francis Hell and Sir Heaton Rhodes in the Legislative Council, but they he~iiate over the loin lb. in view of the possibility of Sir .Tames Parr going to London as High Commissioner and the Prime Minister not relishing the prospect of t!:“ novices in his first Cabinet out numbering the veterans. One of the speculations being put about is dial the new member for Invercargill is not altogether out of the running and that the member for the Eastern Maori District may lie seen on the Treasury Renehos

again. AIIXISTKKK A XT) ItKPOItTKf’S. It is ill] old gibe against politicians, and perhaps often an uniust one, that when their speeches are not very happily recorded in the newspapers they protest. they Inive heen niis-re-ported. The case of tlie lion \Y . XusHiirthy iit X'ew Plymouth last week already has heen mentioned in these 'columns. Now the Hon 11. I'. Pollard declares he has heen a sufferer at the hands of the reporters. Air X’os worthy’s case was a peculiar one. Half a dozen independent newspapers summaries of his remarks to the deputation that waited upon the Prime .Minister and himself in the centre of the Taranaki daily district made him say that when framing the Dairy Control Act. ho had no intention that AlisoItuo Control ” should eonve into force except in the case of pressing need, and that he thought this step might he

.muv.i'a in siiiiKi over awimo. \\ non liis attention was drawn to those reports he (leclnml that they utterly misrepresented his words. Xow Mr Hollard takes up a similar attitude towards the report of a speech he delivered at Tuakati about the same time. I remember." wluit purports to lie a verbatim report of bis words run. that when the eoutrol of our meat by a board first eommenved the same cry as is now being heard regarding our dairy produce was raised ; but after a time, when the system shewed beneficial results, that cry died away. T predict the same turn of events with the control of our dairy industry.” hen reminded that the .Meal Control Hoard never had thought of exorcising " Absolute Control ” and on that account had ■' shewed heneticial results " •Mr Huilartl declared that lie. too. hail been misrepresented. Ho had been referring to tlie war commandeer of more than tell years ago, which, of course, was quite incapable of comparison with the policy of the* Dairy Hoard.