THE "SWEETS OF OFFICE.”

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 93, 4 July 1902, Page 4

THE "SWEETS OF OFFICE.”

Mr Chamberlain was among the guestis-atn the. Lord Mayor’s. banquet to' tbe Speaker of House of Commons on 16th April, anu in replying for “His Majesty’s Ministers,’- said: “I have heard it said---Lard Melbourne at all events used' to say —that the very happiest-days in the life Of a statesman were the- days when he accepted office and the -day when he left it. No doubt that is true. What does it mean? It means that after the average life of a Ministry,. which in this country I 1 may put at three or four years, the chief desire of every member of it is to get quit of office. But oui* tenure, I might -say, has already been prolonged for nearly six years, and for my part I see no immediate prospect of its termination. ' (Laughter and cheers.) It is all very well to talk of the sweets of office, but after six years they pall upon a jaded palate. I am not at all inclined to under-estimate the honour of seruing the Crown or being a part of the great machinery which, in distress or prosperity, in peace or war, is guiding guiding the policy and controlling to a certain extent the destinies of the country. A Minister of the Crown becomes in a sense public property. It is a serious thing to become public property. From that moment you are supposed to be made of cast-iron and capable of anything ; you are expected to answer every kind of question and correspondence upon subjects about which you care notoing and know less. (Laughter.) I sympathise with those persons whose fate it is to become public property. From the moment you are a Minister and public property every action, however simple,, attains at once a special and esoteric character of its own. A special interpretation is founded upon it, and there are, I believe, gentlemen of the press .vho have become such skilled physiognomists that they can trace on the fleeting expression of a Cabinet Minister’s face all the details of the secrets of State. (Laughter.)”