WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1929, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

NEW MINISTERS. NOT TO BE HURRIED. (Special to “ Guardian ”.) WELLINGTON, January 3. Sir Joseph Ward and in’s colleagues evidently are going to take their own time in unfolding the details of the policy they indicated during their eie.tion campaign. The Prime Minister himself has taken no serious notice ol the gi.jes levelled at his •* seventy miilioii loan ” beyond correcting flagrant misstatements in regai'u tt> his financial proposals. It was impossible ifoj him, of course, to foresee all the difficulties that hosct his predecessor m office, or to overcome them by a mere wave ol the hand ; hut lie has reiterated his assurance that all will be well with the finances of the Dominion, and, to his credit, he has cast no unworthy reflections upon his political opponents. The coincidence that the Minister of Finance who negotiated the larger war loans is now in cilice to deal with their maturity is a matter of repeated comment in financial circles and generally one of satisfaction. LABOUR. The Hon. \V. A. Veitcli, the Minister of Labour in the new Government, who entered the House just seventeen years ago as a Labour member and subsequently found the Liberal policy sufficiently progressive to meet his immediate requirements, also has let it. he understood that he is not going to rush into reforms forthwith. On his return from his short Christmas holiday yesterday lie stated in the course of a brief chat- that lie was. nol contemplating any revolutionary changes in the p >licy and administration of the Labour Department. He had found the officers of the department eager to obtain the best possible results from their efforts and thoroughly acquainted with details as well as with broad principles. He could nol say off hand how the work of the Industrial Conference of last year would be continued—several very big problems remained for solution—but both workers and employers might rely upon the best features of the eiFort being preserved. CALLED TO SERVICE. No one is more entertained than the Minister of Health is by the various interpretations that have been placed upon his recognition of bis appointment to the Ministry as “a call to service.” He grudges bis critics none of the humour they have extracted from tho phrase. As a matter ol tact however, Mr Stallworthy does regard the portfolio of Health as a very important trust, since it aims at promoting, in greater and still greater measure, a clean, wholesome, virile people to carry on the best traditions of the Dominion and to become an example to the whole world. Of course all this is the language of tho idealist, who often talks over the beads oi the crowd ; but Parliament for some years past, lias been ill-supplied with imagination and vision and if the row Minister of Health can amend its defects in those respects he will not have rendered an unworthy service to the State. DECENTR ATMZ ATI ON. Wellington is still a little alarmed lest the Hon. W. B. Taverner, who has replaced the Right Hon. J. G. Coates as Minister of Railways, should take it into his head to administer Ins great trust from Dunedin. There has been talk of ministerial offices being set up in the three big centres awa\ from the capital city—Auckland. Christchurch and .Dunedin —and Mr Taverner, it seems, lias had the hardihood to keep his home open in the southernmost- city of the Dominion and so give it something of a residential flavour. People who know the now Minister at all well, however, smile at the. idea of Dunedin being made the administrative centre of the railway system. What probably set the story afloatSvas tho statements made by M r Taverner during the election campaign to the effect that closer personal attention should he given to all public services by those in authority and that Wellington should not he the onl.v centre of inspectorial activity.