WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1926, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

CABINET RECONSTRUCTION,

FIRST STAGE COMPLETE

(Special to “ Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, January 10

The Prime .Minister completed the first stage of his Cabinet reconstruction and the critics, for the most part, are pronouncing his work to bo good. Perhaps the most significant of the new appointments is that oi the lion. (). J, 11awhen, the member for Egmont, to the office of .Minister of Agriculture in place of the Hon W. Nosworthy. .Mr Hawken has not cut so notable a figure in the House oi Repicsentafives as have the two others of yesterday’s appointees. Mr F. J. Rolleston and Mr .1. A. Young, lie being of the solid rather than the brilliant type of politician; but his appointment as successor to Mr Nosworthy is being taken as an indication that the controlling and subsidising and pooling police with which his predecessor has associated the Department, of Agriculture is to he very materially modified. He has been one of the Government’s nominees on the Dairy Produce Expoit Control Raord since its inception two vears ago. and though in that capacity he has very properly maintained a nonpartisan attitude it is understood that ; n his Ministerial capacity ho will not he found among the ardent supporters of absolute control. Neither is it expected that wheat subsidies and higher protective duties will ho items on his programme. .JUSTICE AND DEFENCE.

The Hon F. J. Rolleston, the new Minister of .Justice and Defence, is a son of the late Hon \Y. Rolleston who first entered the House fifty-eight years ago ami during his twenty-eight years of uninterrupted service held many portfolios and made history most of all in that of hands. Mr F. J. Rolleston inherits many of the personal and mental qualities of his distinguished father and in the opinion of some old politicians is destined to exercise a widespread influence upon the public life of the. Dominion. It is an open secret now that at the end of the first session in the House the glamour oi the place had ceased to hold him and that hut for the obligation he felt towards his constituents he gladly would have returned to private lile. But his second and third sessions brought him to realise that there was work for earnest men to do in the legislature of the country and he continued to apply himself to it with the same spirit: and independence as his hither had done before him. My the time the recent election came round he. was committed to the career that had been thrust upon him. In the offices he has accepted he will find much usotul work at his hand. HAMILTON.

The lion J. A. Young, who has superseded the lion Sir Maui T’omaro in charge of the Health Department, is a progressive, active l member of the House who has lost none of his energy and enthusiasm with which he won his way into Parliament fifteen years ago. Two years hack ho had claims to promotion which he deferred only on Iho earnest solicitation of his friends to facilitate the arrangements of his party by accepting the chairmanship of committee. His inclusion in the reconstructed Cabinet was inevitable in the eirouinstances, and it is hound to he instilled bv his administrative tact and ability. Without any reflection upon Sir Maui Poniare. whose occasional difficulties with his chief, it safely may ho said, had nothing to do with the new jistji. Mr Vomit's presence* at the Health Department will he cordially welcomed by the whole community. The member for Hamilton has a wide knowledge ol affairs, is one ol flic best debaters in the House, and in his own Department will do much to

strengthen the confidence of t lie* public in (lie Government. Sir Muni **til 1 "ill find |ilcnl,v do occupy his tilin' and energies ill attending to tin* needs of the Native nice and of the Cook Lslamlers which still remain in his r lin rge. WHAT NEXT? Mr Coates lies taken pains to make it quite clear that his work- of recoilsi ruction is not yet concluded. lie dedares frankly his intention to relieve himself of certain routine duties in order ihal lie may devote more time to Imperial affairs and to consultation with his colleagues, to relieve Air Noswortliy of the portfolio of Finance and to hand it over to .Mr Downie Stewart, and to so re-arrange the Public Works Department that ii will make loss insistent calls upon the attention of the Minister in Charge. This seems to in-

dicate the retirement of Air Nosworth.v at the end of the current financial year in March and of one or two of the other .Minders in the nearer or more distant future. The leadership of the Upper House is still in the air. Hie name of Air E. P. Lee. who now holds a seat in the House, being mentioned in this connection more frequently than is that of the Ron Vernon Peed. The Government with its large majority could afford to risk the Onmaru sent going to the Opposition, and Air Leo, though falling very far short of Sir Francis Hell as a leader, seems hotter erpiipped than any other likely aspirant for tlie position. This, however, is a small matter oompared with the remaining touches to the work of reconstruction.