WANTED A MINISTER OF JUSTICE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5524, 10 December 1878, Page 3

WANTED A MINISTER OF JUSTICE.

(From the Timaru Herald.)

It is reported that Hr. Sheehan is about to resign his portfolio of Minister of Justice, in order that the whole of his time and attention may be disengaged for native affairs. Wo are glad to hear this, and wo hope that the contemplated change of offices will soon take place. Mr. Sheehan is devoted to his public duties, and has a wonderful power of work in him ; but he is very irregular in bis habits, and hates the drudgery and confinement which are nevertheless inseparable from the proper management of a routine department. His administration of the office of Justice has 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 him personally, he has latterly pretty well let the department take care of itself. We need hardly say that it has suffered very much through this ministerial neglect, for it is not like some departments, presided over by an Under-Secretary who is equal to any responsibility, or capable of any organisation that might devolve upon a Minister. The Under-Secretary for Justice, though a very worthy man, is helpless in the absence of the Minister where anything beyond formal business is concerned. Ha is, In fact, merely a first-rate clerk, precise and methodical to a fault, and most courteous and assiduous in his relations to the public. If called upon to decide any question the least bit beyond tho limits of bare red tape, however, he is all at sea. The consequence is, that with a Minister always away, or up to his ears in native business, and an Under-Secretary who would not for worlds exercise his own judgment in anything, the department has got into a terrible muddle, questions of the first importance often being allowed to stand over, wholly unattended to, for an unconscionable time. It was no doubt a great blunder for the offices of Justice and Native Affairs ever to bo 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 the Grey Ministry, he was the only lawyer in it; and, as the At-torney-Generalship was being kept open for political reasons, ho was obliged to take the portfolio of Justice. We shall be somewhat interested to observe which of Mr. Sheehan’s colleagues is selected to relieve him of this enerous post. Mr. Stont, of course, would make an unexceptional Minister of Justice, and would, we are sure, dignify the office by his administration of it. He would, however, in that case, bo obliged to live at the seat of Government, which, we believe, is not compatible with his other arrangements. As political Attorney-General, he can live where he pleases, and carry on his 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 in Wellington “ the Workhouse.” Not: one of _ the other Ministers Is fit to fill the position of Minister of Justice, except Colonel Whitmore, and he has quite enough to do already as Colonial Secretary, Minister of Defence, and general locum tenens during the absence of others. Mr. Macandrew is entirely taken np with public works and Otago; the Premier is too big a man to soil his fingers with departmental work, even if ha were not wholly absorbed in protecting the rights of the human race ; Mr. Ballance has already more than 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 Nahe, certainly available ; but the philo-Maori policy is scarcely yet sufficiently matured for all the power and patronage of a genuine Ministerial portfolio to be left to the tender mercies of an aboriginal. The prospects of the country obtaining good, energetic departmental administration are not, on the whole, encouraging ; yet that is ,what is wanted just now, much more than theoretical experiments of policy.