THE Kaipara Advertiser. AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1912.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 24 July 1912, Page 2

THE Kaipara Advertiser. AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1912.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT. "With the personal uf the new Government no one ca,n iind fault unless it be with the appointment of Mr Fisher. .JThe Prime Minister is the party's mouthpiece on tho lands portfolio. Moreover as he ia a practical farmer of considerable renown in bis country —he was more than once the president of the Northern Agricultural Society—and as land 3 and agriculture ought to go together, ifc is right that he should also hold the portfolio of agriculture. This is a precedent which we hope to see followed always for the future. As to whether the Labour portfolio is not too much for the man Avho has the other two as well as the burden of the Prime Ministership, need not be discussed here because Mr Maesey it is undei stood does not propose to hold it much longer, having it in the first instanco merely for convenience. Mr Allen is of course in the right place as finunco minister because no one has shown puch aptitude for the subject in matter as he has during the long numerous years of his service in the cold shades. Once twenty years ago be characterised Mr Ballance as a " baby in finance " but he has since then come to the j'ears of political discretion and his ambition as financier has long stood justified hy the test of figures, facts and principles. Of De- ' fence too lie has made a special study and indeed gave tho government of the day very material help in getting the present scheme of defence with its compulsory principle on to the statue book of the .Dominion. Education he holds also, but as this also is hut a temporary arrangement it need not be discussed. Mr Herries as Native Minister will inspire confidence especially in these who have exalted ideas at out the sacred compact made with the Maori people on taking their country over under the (Queen's sovereignty ; Minister of Eailways also he is suited to the ground by reason of the special study he has made of the subject of railway management. Mr Fraser has been associated for nearly thirty years with miners aua ! tiie mining country and therefore is fitly in the position of Minister of Mines, lie is a u:au of rare'in tegrity and honour. Mr lihodes inspires respect wherovoi the story is knuwn ol tho- high sense of duty which took him into tho South African cam~ paigu when many a man in similar position would have been satisfied with a handsome subscription. A.s Postmast'.!r General he will give a. go^d account of himself. No one, of course, expects, that the account will be as good as that Avhich Sir Joseph Ward gave of himself, But then the success of iSir Joseph was phenomenal and it would be unfair to expect the phenomenal from a neoi lnte. Mr Herdman is, being a law yer, light as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and h is right that the precedent set by Sir John Findlay's case has been followed of not separating the two departments. At the same time we are free to confess that if therp. is anything in legal prestige, and after all' Mr Bell, K.C. us the leader of the Wellington bar and a lawyer of greater reputation than Mr Herdman, the Attorney gen-< eralship, if given to Mr Bell, would have been in better hands, Mr Bell is of course an addition of great strength to the Cabinet by reason of his great legal attainments and his knowledge of public affairs. His elevation to the Council pleases that large section of the public which is familar with the early history of the Dominion and the great part played in it by Mr Bell's father. It is curious in this connection to remember that 1 the first Minister to lead tho Oouncil : was the elder Bell who tuok his seat

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weakness of another thoroughly alarmed the majority of the citizens, The time is opportune for the majority to rise in their might and sweep the field against Labour. If Mr Massey and his colleagues can obtain the confidence of the majority, and unite them against the common enemy, labour, ho is sure of a period of office rivalling that of his predecessors. Labour is angling for the small farmer, and can think of nothing better to propose for Ms attraction than the abolition of his exemption from the land tax. This makes the hand to be played by the new men superlatively good. If they will play it so as to consolidate a strong party to stand against labour, so arranged that, as in Australia, there are two parties in the state, they must win and enjoy the fruits of victory. Mr Massoy has invoked democracy and progress as his guiding lights.