WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1932, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

MINISTER AND MINISTRIES.

ABROAD AND AT HOME.

(From a-Correspondent)

Wellington, June 27

The Prime Minister having deemed it undesirable , that he should go abroad during the present difficulties confronting him at home, it obviously was the right thing that Mr Coat.is should take charge of the delegation the Dominion Is dispatching to Ottawa. Whether Mr Forbes or Mr Coates bad been entrusted with the leadership of the delegation, . the inclusion of Mr . Downie Stewart, the Minister of Finance, was inevitable, since no other member of the Cabinet i 6 so well acquainted with the problem to be disusised, and, it is hoped, satisfactorily solved. Some of the critics are taking Mr Forbes vo ta k for not being more prompt and more explicit in regard to New Zealand’s policy at the approaching Conference, but the Prime Minister, poor man, has given all the information that is available and cannot foresee what more may be produced at the other end of the world four or five weeks hence. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. On the eve of bis departure for Auckland, en route to Ottawa, Mr Coates in the course of a newspaper interview made an allusion to price . levels which is finding more favour j with producers than with consumers. “The wholesale price level of our export commodities,” h’e saxi. “is a vital factor and if this problem can be tackled with any degree of success the Conference will be justified on that ground alone. Although it to a moi-t complex question we hope that the monetary problem, the k>..ucs conj needed with it, and their relation to the price level, will be disci: used at least to a point ■ where hi general plan for the whole Empire can be seriously considered.” Though this .somewhat involved statement does not necessarily pout to increased prices, it to given this interpretation by members of the Labour Baity who no longer are looking to Mr Coates ns a stopping stone towards the Treasury Benches.

TEMPORARY PORTFOLIOS. As already hr 6 been announced, Mr Forbes lias t, ken over the port.oiio of Finance for the period of Mr Downie Stewart’s absence from the Dominion, while Mr A. Hamilton tue L’ostnijteiter General, has relived Mr Coates of the portfolio oi Employment, and Mr C. E. Macmillan has assumed the less .. exacting. burden tor the time being, of the portfolio of Public Works. Mr Hamilton, who in addition to the Postmaster Genera 1-.-hip, had been bearing the portfolios of Labour and Internal Affairs, has proved hintoelf a very capable administrator' ,and now has an opportunity to' shoiviviiimself capable of bearing a more exacting load. Mr Macmillan, .vhose appointment to Cabinet rank •casioned some surprise, is well on die way towards justifying l’.is pi’o'liotio.n, and, on the whole, Mr Coates nay lie congratulated upon the justification of his nominees.

THE PREMIER’S QUARTET Having referred at this length to die constitution of the Coalition Govarnment, it would be ungracious not o mention Mr Forbes’ tour party cel'eagujs. In Mr Ransom and Mr Cobbe the Prime Minister, and indeed} 4 ir Coates, have two of the most local and helpful colleagues any political leader could desire. Mr Ransom, it .vill be. remembered, was Mr Forbes’ locum t ‘.Miens during the Prime Min raster's attendance at the last Imperial Conference in London, when the dominant parties were less congenial than they are to-day, and the busiless of the Hon c rarely Into run mere uiioothly than it did during that perid. Mr Cobbe came into PaiLament ■s late as 1928, after several requests :o take part in active politics, r.nd at nice wars chosen as one of Sir Joseph Wards’s colleagues, a compliment that fias been far more than justified. Sir Apiruna Ngata, and the Hon. Rob. Masters need no plaudit's. Their •nroors need no recital.