The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1928 THE NEW MINISTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 534, 11 December 1928, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1928 THE NEW MINISTRY

LIKE the Ballance Cabinet of 1890, the Ward Cabinet appointed yesterday is virtually an untried team, but its component elements are good, and it will be generally admitted that Sir Joseph has made the best selection possible in the circumstances. Though there are only three Ministers who have held Cabinet rank before, there are five others of long Parliamentary experience. To these the broad principles of administrative methods should be familiar; and the details should be fairly easily mastered. Four members of the new Cabinet, including two from Auckland, have to serve their apprenticeship in both House and Cabinet at the same time. Their task will not be easy, but it is doubtless with an eye to their position that Sir Joseph is modifying his previously-stressed opinion that a sitting of the House would be necessary next February. Between now and February the novices would have very little time to pick up the threads of their departments. Embarrassing questions put by members of the Opposition parties would, therefore, be met with even more non-committal answers than usual, which would scarcely be to the credit of the new Government. On this account alone Sir Joseph would be wiser to defer the next sitting until June. With two Ministers in the Cabinet, Auckland has good representation. Congratulations to Messrs. Staljworthy and Donald are in order; their elevation has no doubt exceeded even their own wildest dreams. Four weeks ago, in spite of the United Party’s published aspirations, few would have with confidence that both Mr. Stallworthy and Mr. Donald would" become Ministers of the Crown within a month. Many able politicians have served laborious years on the back benches without achieving such eminence. Mr. T. M. Wilford served for 19 years before he was rewarded with a Cabinet appointment. Mr. Massey was 18 years a private member. Even Mr. Seddon had to wait 12 years for a portfolio. So luck plays its part in politics as elsewhere, and while the elevation of Messrs. Stallworthy and Donald is a tribute to their undoubted ability, it is also a reminder that a twirl of the political wheel may produce unexpected results. Of the general character of the new Cabinet, the most satisfactory feature is its leaven of vigorous, business men, still in their prime. Their capacity for good all-round work would undoubtedly be widened if they were not so firmly shackled by +he peculiar disposition of the parties; but they will at least be able to demonstrate their proficiency as departmental administrators, and will serve a good apprenticeship. Much speculation will centre round the attitude of the new Ministers to the pet schemes and theories of their predecessors, and it is plain that some readjustments in even routine policy will be necessary. The ideas of Mr. Forbes, for instance, diverge widely from those of Mr. A. D. McLeod. Sir Apirana Ngata will be unremitting in his efforts to remedy Native-grievances, outstanding since the Maori Wars. Mr. T. M. Wilford is a firm friend of all policemen, as his speeches last session disclosed, and he should be a sympathetic administrator of the Force. While Mr. Stallworthy will have the interesting task of fitting his ideas to the halffinished scheme for dealing with mental defectives which was evolved by the Hon. J. A. Young. Among the disappointed ones, quite probably, are Mr. W. J. Poison and Mr. T. W. McDonald. Mr. Poison is a man with widp experience of rural problems, and has made a study of rural finance. It is improbable that reluctance to forswear his independence caused his exclusion from the Cabinet. Mr. McDonald, a former Army officer, brought down a stoxxt Reform pillar—the Hon. A. D. McLeod. These and others of the United rank and file will now be able to support the Ministry in its first task, the relief of unemployment. The opposing parties are hardly likely to make objection, but the Reform group may try to have a pro forma division recorded before the House rises, SWORD BLADES ON THE GRINDSTONE •THE English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, suggested in a " recent essay that war, and the talk of war, provided modern man with the only certain relief from the boredom of life. He admits that the motives impelling man to martial chatter are probably subconscious, but nevertheless their influence is demonstrably apparent. War drums are throbbing on the Pai*aguayan borders; Amanullah of Afghanistan is dropping bombs and peace pamphlets near Jalalabad; Mxxssolini says the world is arming, and even the retiring President of the United States, with charming consistency, follows the principles of Amanullah, but in less spectacular fashion. President Coolidge, in his valedictory speech to Congress, made heartening reference to the fact that a spirit of peace and goodwill, coining from mutual understanding, was abroad in the world. In the same speech he recommended Congress to carry out the programme for building 15 more cruisers. Calvin Coolidge, like many other statesmen, believes that mutual trust is the basis of civilisation. One man in the world who should have the frown of thoughtfulness on his brow is Mr. F. B. Kellogg, whose Peace Pact was signed with pomp and ceremony in Paris a few months ago. Representatives of the nations signed the document, shook hands and decided that the long-sought millennium was not so far away after all. Then they went home, and now the sword blades are hot and bright on the grindstone. Mr. Kellogg has yet to learn something of the sweet cynicism of Benito Mussolini, who believes that the realities of experience are much more eloquent than theoi’ies and philosophies. World peace, according to theory and philosophy, should be a state easily brought about; for it appeals to reason, and man’s sense of comfort; but the lessons of expei'ience are provocative of cynicism if not despair. In the bad old days there was much less boredom in the lives of the people; unexpected happenings gave them an interest in life, and frequently the preservation of life, in some situations, demanded the exercise of every intellectual resource. But life, now for the most part robbed of these stimulating interludes, has brought a fatal boredom to man, and the neeessary entertainment is found in thoughts of superb sacrificial carnivals that must make the ghost of Nero sob for reincarnation. Mussolini declares that the world is arming, therefore Italv must arm too. France has increased its naval estimates by £2,252,000. America must have more cruisers. These nations signed Kellogg s Pact a few months ago ... it does seem as if one more “scrap of paper” has been put into the archives of history.