WANTED A MINISTER OF JUSTICE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 296, 21 December 1878, Page 6

WANTED A MINISTER OF JUSTICE.

(From the Timaru IlerahlJ) It ia reported tbat Mr Sheehan is about to resign his portfolio of Minister of Justice, in order that the whole of bis time aod attention may be disengaged for nati?e affairs. We are glad to hear this, and we bope tbat tbe contemplated change of offices will soon take place. Mr Sheehan is devoted to his public duties, and has a wonderful power of work io him; but he is very irregular ia hii habits, and bates the drudgery and confinement which are nevertheless inseparable from the proper management of a routine department. His administration of the office of Justice bas so far been a continual struggle between good intentions and faulty performances; and, except in a few instances where influence has been brought to bear upon bim personally, he has latterly pretty well let the department take care of itself. We need hardly say that it has Buffered very much through this Ministerial neglect, for it is not like some departments, presided over by an Under-Secretary wbo is equal to any responsibility, or capable of any organisation that might devolve upon a Minister. The UnderSecretary for Justice, though a very worthy man, is helpless in the absence of tbe Minister where anything beyond formal business is concerned. He is, in fact, merely a firal-rate clerk, precise and methodical to a fault, and most courteous and assiduous in his relations to the public: If oalled upon to decide any question the least bit beyond tbe limits of bare red tape, however, he is all at sea. The consequence ie, tbat with a Minister always away, or up to his ears in native business, and anUnderSacretary who would not lor worlds exercise bis own judgment in anything, the department has got in to a terrible muddle, questions of the first importance often beiug allowed to siand over, wholly unattended to, for an unconscionable time. It was no doubt a great blunder for lhe offices of Justice and Native Affairs ever to be conjoined under one Minister, The only reason why it was done in the case of Mr Sheehan, indeed, was that at the time of the formation of Grey Ministry, be was the only lawyer in it ; and, as the Attorney-Generalship wai being kept open for political reasons, he waa obliged to take portfolio of Justice. We shall be somewhat interested to observe which of Mr Sheehan's colleagues is selected to relieve him of this onerous post. Mr Stout, ol course, would make an unexceptional Minister of Justice, and would, we are sure, dignify the office by bis ad mints, tration of it. He would, howe</e**, iu that case, be obliged to live at the seat of Government, which, we believe, is not compatible with his other arrangements. As political AttorneyGeueral, he can live where be pleases and carry on hia professional practice; but the Minister of Justice, if he attends to his duties at all, must spend the greater part of every day in that dreary pile of buildings which is facetiously termed ia Wellington "the Workhouse." Not one of the other Ministers is fit to fill fche position of Minister pf Justice, except Colonel Whitmore, aad he has quite enough to do already as Colonial Secretary, Minister of Defence, and general locum tenens during the absence of tbe others. Mr Macandrew is entirely taken up with puciie works and Otago; the Premier is too big a man to soil his fingers with departmental work, even if he were nofc wholly absorbed in protpcting the rights of the human race ; Mr Balance has already wore tban he can manage in the Treasury and the New Zealander; and Mr Fisher, of course, could not be trusted with an office where there is anything to do. There is Hoani Nnhe, certainly available; but the philo Maori policy is scarcely yet -sufficiently matured for all lhe power and patronage of a genuine Ministerial portfolio to be left to the tender mercies of an aborignial. Tbe prcspecls of the country obtaining good, energetic departmental administration are not on the whole, encouraging ; yet tbat is what ia wanted just now, much more than theoretical experiments of policy.