WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1928, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

LAND SETTLEMENT,

THE NEW MINISTER

(Special to “Guardian”.)

WELLINGTON, Dec. 24

The lion G .W. Forbes, the new .Minister of hands, has lost no time in preparing for the onerous task that Ims been thrust upon him by the accession of the United Party to office. The Prime Minister, knowing his colleague by long personal contact, has decided that Mr Forbes is capable of hearing both the burdens of the Department of Lauds and those of the Department of Agriculture, which had been the care of separate Ministers during the preceding sixteen years. Mr Forbes, who came into the House just twenty years ago as a supporter of the Ward Government, was one of the first settlers on the Cheviot Estate, the forerunner of the ninc-hundred-and-njiiety-nine years lease system, and his own personal success has not lessened his faith in the land settlement policies of Mr Hal lance and Sir John Mackenzie. He is not contemplating the introduction of any revolutionary policy of his own. llis first step will lie to ascertain how the lands of the Dominion stand. BUSINESS AND FOOTBALL

Having lmd considerable experience during his youth and early manhood in both business and football, Mr Forbes may ho trusted to go about his investigations with both thoroughness and discretion. His first step, as ho announced just before leaving for the South on the eve of the holidays, will bo to convene a conference of the Commissioners of Crown Lands of all the land districts in the Dominion and to discuss with those authorities means of bringing about the profitable settlement of the available lands remaining in the bands of the Crown. One of the great difficulties he secs before the Land Department is the unsatisfactory condition of'a large proportion of the abandoned farms. He blames no ono for the mistakes that wore made in connection with soldier settlement—primarily Parliament, of course, was rsponsible for what had occurred—hut something had to he done promptly to save the immediate sufferers and the country from the accumulating trouble. Delay could only aggravate the position. “A DIVINE CALL.” The political opponents of the Hon A. G. Stallworthy, the new Minister of Health, tire finding something intensely amusing in that gentleman’s statement in Auckland on Saturday to the effect that lie regarded his elevation to Cabinet “as a divine call to service.” It lav within his power, he is further quoted as saying, “to do wonderful humanitarian work from one etui of the country to the other.” The audience to which these words were addressed, according to a newspaper correspondent “literally rocked.” All that need he said of the audience concerned is that it lacked both imagination and manners. One would not like to offer the same excuse for the papers and the politicians. Mr Stallworthy takes serious things a little more seriously than does the average individual. He is an ardent prohibitionist and a rigid protestant, facts which may have led him to think lightly of his chance of being included in the United Ministry. The divine call has come through the broad channel of tolerance. CHRISTMAS TRADE. Thanks largely to a delightful change in the weather a few days before the iH'giiiiiing of the great summer festival, the Christmas trade in 'Wellington lias .shown a substantial improvement upon that of the corresponding period last year. A week ago the weather win far from propitious; hut two or throe days ago it took a turn for the hotter and since then il lias liecn all that could be desired by the shop-keepers and the holiday makers. There are I'hliticians claiming that the improved conditions, compared with tlio.se of last year, are due to the advent of tin* United Government, hut Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues, while enjoying the humour of the suggestion do not claim to have so easily removed the troubles besetting tile country tbov were depicting at the beginning of the month. All that can be claimed by the new Ministry at the present time is that the sun is shining, that the grass is growing, and that the outlook for the future is cheering.