THE NEW CABINET.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 80, 1 April 1912, Page 3

THE NEW CABINET.

DETAILS OF NEW MINISTERS

CAREERS

("jST.Z: Times.")

Hon. Arthur Fvi. Myers,

Hie Hon. Arthur M. .Myers gradu

arte! we'll for political life in the mimicipal school. Ho was nearly five years Mayor of Auckland, completing his last term in April, 1910, two months before his return to Parliament; in a by-election caused by tbf (loath of his cousin Mr F, E. Baume, who had represented Auckland Ease. Xo previous occupant of the Mayoral chair had shown such a capacity for grasping big problems in a practical way; Mr Myers almost succeeded in accomplishing the fact of bringing about a "greater Auckland." Howover, the- conflicting interests and

jealousies, were too great to be reconciled, and the big proposal, though admitted a good one, especially in relation to the financial adjustments, vras turned down. It has since taken partial shape by way of a. joint authority to deal with the drainage problem. During his mayoralty a highly progressive policy was inaugurated a new Town Hall, new abattoirs, ex tension of the city water supph scheme at a cost of £150,000, and ; mammoth ferro-concrete bridge across Cemetery Gully being among the mail. features. Mr Myers also devoted ; great deal of attention to the question of workers' houses, and broughl forward proposals for dealing wit! this problem, but was not successful in securing its adoption. Mr Myers has travelled extensively in England

the United States, and the Continent of Europe. lie is a young mom he: of Parliament, and lias so far take: only a modest part in debate. Whej lie speaks his matter is thorough!;, prepared, and always reads well. He is forty-live .years of age, was borr in Ballarat, and completed his education at Wellington College. His business career has wholly been ii the big brewery undertaking knowi as the Campbell-Elirenfried Company, .Mr Ehrenfried being his uncle. Foi some years he held the presidency 0.1 the Auckland Bowling Association, he has won prize:-; for swimming ant. rowing, and has held a commissio! as major in the volunteers.

Hor*. W. D. S. Mactfonali!. The Hon. W. i). S. Macdonald is re cognised by his fellow Parliamentarians to have a thorough kncwledgt of native land matters, and he has tin advantage of speaking the nativs language. He is a sheep farmer in Lb. Gisborne district, having purchased .- property there in i!902. He : is fins

years of age, a Victorian by birri hi- father (Mr Alexander Even Ma» don aid) having emigrated from th< 'lsle of Skye, Scotland, to that colon; in the early days. Mr Macdonald's oc eupation following his school days >va; farming in North Gippsland. Ails: three years he took up droving, an: in October, 1882, came to New Zca hind. In 1887 he became manager o the Bank of New Zealand propartw; at Gisborne, holding that position Until he took up farming on his o,v: account in HJO2. lie has acted as : provincial delegate to Farmers' Uni ■ok, was'chainnan of the Tokomaru Baj

■Sdhocl Committee for six years; ro presented Tokomaru Hiding in connection with the Waiapu Count} Council; also the Motu Riding in tin Cook County Council; is now chairman of the Wai'hoku County Council (!(.! year of office); president of the I*o v erty Bay Farmers' Club; represent? Waikohu on the Gisborne Harboui Board; for six years acted as representative for Motu. district jn con neotion with the Cock Hospital an<i Charitable Aid Board. Contested Ba; of Plenty scat in 1908 and was re turned. Since 1900 he has been th( GoVernment Whip for the North Is land, lie is one of the most populai members <vf Parliament, and lias ol late developed debating powers previously undstected in him. His pioneei woi'k in New Zealand is extensive, for under his close supervision nc less an area than 70,000 acres of bu?h country lias lieen cleared. It is wel. recognised that Mr Macdonakßs knowledge of the native character and thi operation of the Maori Land Act is .second only to that of Sir James Carroll and t'h,e Hon. A. T. Xgata. Ken. J. A. Hanan. The Hon. .1. A. Hanan, a progressive radical who has represented Invercargill for thirteen years, is a bar rister by profession, and was born in that town in 1838.' His father w... the late dames Albert Hanan, artist an early resident of [nvercargill. J ■<•■' future memiber of Parliament obtained 1 !iis elementary and secondary cduca lion in the State schools, studied for iii.e law, and eventually entered into practice as a solicitor, subsequently qualifying as a barrister. He was the first native of Invercargill to he elected upon its city council, and was tl t youngest native-born citizen to hole! the Mayoral office. Mi - Hanan's mumcipal record showed resource and initiative, and it is to his credit that In was the first member of any local body to move in the direction of asking the Government to bring in a measure in favour of rating on unimproved value. Mr Hanan has been a member of the Southland Education Board. Southland Boys' and Girls' Higl School, and Southern Hospital Trust ; president of Invercargill S'.;.akespear. Society; president Southland branch League of the Empire; and member of Otago School Commissioners. Itwas elected to • represent Invare-ar-gil] in the House of Representatives in 1803, and has been returned by large majorities ever since. He was chairman of the Select Committe* which inquired int.; the Mine charges, and also field a similar position of responsibility on the Committee of Privi lege set up last session to inquin I into the bribery allegations agains ! the member for Grey Lynn.

Hon. G3or§B Laufenscn. Thirteen years of active Parliamentary .life, full of keen advocacy of principle, lias made the Hon. George Laurenson (Minister of Customs, Marine and Labour) a, well-known figure in the Dominion. Wellingtonians probably remember .him best as the man who had the temerity, so recently as last Parliament, to propose that the seat of Government be removed from that city. The tactical advantage of an inland city, sale- from sudden invasion, was one point, hut his chief object in suggesting the big change was an ideal of a State city on the leasehold plan, where the increment of land value caused by the adoption of the area, as the capital of New Zealand would go exclusively to the benefit of the community. He had in his mind a site surrounded by 150,000 acres of Crown land, where the climate was most equable. It could be. laid out and improved with ali

the conveniences of a city for -J.iOU. 000, and ho believed that wibVin a. year the rents from portions of the new city not required for State purposes would pay the interest on thai sum. But by a majority of 15 Parliament, by excluding other district: save Wellington from consideration as possible sites of the new building, imposed Parliament on the city possibly for ever.

The substantial support obtained for the proposal, in spite of the immense practical difficulties, indicated that Ml Laurenson is able to give good grounds for any opinion he holds. He stands out prominently as a radical on the land question, and Kid Parliamentary work as Chairman of the Local Bill: Committee—a difficult but little advertised post of responsibility—entities him to be called one of the most useful members of the Bouse. Foi a brief period lie became a whip of the Government party, but a serious. breakdown in health forced his retirement from that position. A Shetlandei by birth, lie arrived in New Zealand with his parents 36 years' ago, and found Ids first position (in a ship chandler's store) a fortnight later in the town which he has since represented for 13 yearn in Parliament. He eventually obtained a pwj prietary interest in the bus: ness, but sold out in 1904 He served nine years on the Lyttel ton Borough Council, and has bcoi for a longer period on the Lyttsltoi Harbour Board, of which' lie is chairman. Air Laurenson is also prominent ly concerned in Die work of the Pros> byterian Church. Hon. G. W. Russall. The Hon. George W. Russell, M.P for Avon, is a journalist who commenced his career in the office of tin Invercargill News.. His birthplace i: Londoii, but his parents emigrated t< Tasmania in 1854, when. lie was an infant, and they came to New Zealand in 1865. He served an apprenticeship as a compositor at the Even ing Post, Wellington, and decided t< enter the Wesleyan ministry. He wa: three ye;uvs ... probationer,, but decline; ordinal ion, and left the church i'oi journalism, becoming sub-editor of the Wellington Chronicle in 1878, but re tired to establish the Manawatu Her aid ; -subsequently he owned the Ma

nawatu Times, and Inter established the Waikato News. He removed tc Christchurch in 1889 and established the business of Russell and Willis, printers and publishers. In 189 S, having purchased the Spectator, which he still owns, Mr Russell retired from that firm.

Mr Russell's political life lias beer full of incident. He boasts no eontin nous record in Parliament, but hae been there off and on since 1893. when after several failures ho succeeded'in winning the Riccarton seat. His first attempt as a Parliamentary candidate was at Foxton in 1881. when lie was third on the poll amonp six candidates. Sir Walter Puller and I)r Newman came lower down the List. Another unsuccessful political venture of Mr Russell's wa,s in the Waikato constituency in 1887. He is n keen educationalist, and wrote a manual on "The Duties of Life" as an attempt to bridge the distance between the purely secular system of education and the teachings of the Bible, teaching ethecs, morality and duty without dogma. He is a member of the North Canterbury Education Board ; president of the New Zealand Educational Conference at Wellington. i 1905; member of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College, 189/ to date, and now chairman of thai body. Hen. James Colvin. The Hon. J. Colvin, who takes the Mines portfolio, is an old member of the House. He was born in Donegal, Ireland, in 1844, and educated there. Mr Colvin emigrated to Australia in 1861. After a brief experience of gold mining at Oreswick' Creek and Daylesford he came to New Zealand in the following year, attracted by the $;old fields of Otago. He tried his luck successively at Duns-tan and Wakatipu, and in 1864 at Wakamarina, go ing thence to Waimea, Hokitika, Grey Valley, Addison's Flat, and Westport, where be finally settled in 18G7. From to 1891 he was a member of the Puller County Council ; sat mi the Westport Borough Council ten years, and was twice Mayor; a member, and several times chairman, of the Westport Harbour Board for 23 years; represented Puller district oi the Nelson Education Board for fix years \ and has sat on the Hospital Board and Licensing Bench. .He entered the House of Representatives in 1899 as the member for Puller, war Oh airman of the G-olclfields and Miner Committee for six years, became Senior Liberal Whip in 1906 and Chairman of Committees in L 909. Mr Col \in has always taken a keen interest in sport, and has been a member of the Westport Pacing Club for 41 vears.

Hon. Peter H. Buck. Te Rangihiroa, Dr. P. H. Buck, native representative in the Executive, belongs to the same school as tin Hon. A! T. Ngata, the "Young Maori Party," whose enlightened views ilie has often advocated in company with Mr Ngata. Mr Buck was born at [Jrenui, Tavanaki, i:i 1879. He is a son of Vv. H. Buck and Nga-rongo-ki-tua, of Ngati-Mutunga and NgatiTama, liajxis of Te Attiawa tribe, 'IV. ranaki. He was educated ait the Ureatn public school, Te Ante College (Hawke's Bay), where, besides learning to play football, he won the native medical scholarship in 1899. Thou he entered the Otago University, where he graduated M.B. and Ch.B. in 1904. Dr. Buck became house sur-

geon of Dunedin Hospital a year biter, and in 1906 was appointed native medical officer in the Native Department. In 1907 he became a health officer amongst the .Maoris with the Pulblic Health Department, which is apparently a good political school for Maori members, Dr. Pomaro, M.P., graduating from the same department. Dr Buck was elected member for the Northern Maori seat in 1903, in succession to the late Mr Hone Hoke, and was ro-eloeted in 1911. He married a daughter of Mr Arthur Wilson, of Milton, Otago. Hon. H. G. Ell. The Hon. H. G. Ell, member of the Executive without portfolio, is a native of Christchurch, where lie was born in 1862. He received his c lacation at Halswell and West Chrietchurch schools. Mr Ell commenced hi& public career on the Spreydon Read Board, and was for a short term one of the Sydenham ward representatives on the first Greater Christchurch City Council. He contested the Christchurch City seat in 1896. coming fifth on the roll with 4711 votes. At the general election of 1899 he was elected to represent Christ-

church City, securing 6149 votes. He was re-elected for C'hrisLChuroh City at the 1902 general election, with 7921: votes. In 1905 lie became Ohristcluireh South'® representative and has represented that constituency ever since. Mr Ell is a strong leaseholder on the land question, has worked herd in the interests of securing public reserves for the people, and has advocated the cause of Labour for many years. Hen. Thoriipj; Bisxlo.n. The Hon. Thomas Buxton, member of the Executive without portfolio, ic M.P. for Geraldine, and sat in the Bouse of Representatives for some years as member for Rangitata as a supporter of the Liberal party, ]i" was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1863, and landed at Lytteltou with his parents in 1865. Mr Buxton was educated in Christchurch and removed to South Canterbury with his, parents about thirty years . ago. lie commenced his commercial career with the Farmers' Co-operative .Association, Timaru, and subsequently started business in Temuka on his own account as a general storekeeper, adding later the business of a gvain and produce merchant, and during the last few years lias also been engaged flourmilling. Mr Buxton began his public career about fifteen years ago as a member of the Temuka Borough Council, wa.s elected Mayor of the town nine years ago. and has held the office continuously till now. He is a member of the Geraldine Licensing Committee, and chairman of the Temuka Domain Board. Mr Buxton entered Parliament as a supporter of the Liberal party at the general election of 1908.