CABINET AND THE PUBLIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 541, 19 December 1928, Page 10

CABINET AND THE PUBLIC

A PART from the personal convenience of Cabinet Ministers ■*“ themselves, Sir -Joseph AVard’s proposal to establish ministerial offices in the four metropolitan centres will be applauded by public men who have often had to make special trips to Wellington in order to obtain interviews concerning public questions of the day. With offices in the four cities, the Ministers will have more inducement to leave the capital. In the past, the tendency has been for them to transact the important business in AVellington, and do nothing more than receive deputations while on tour. Little work of value was ever done in those few scurried minutes, but the new scheme should make for a more efficient treatment of affairs which are of considerable concern to the community.

Cabinet Ministers are admittedly busy men, but they are the servants of the public which put them into power, and every effort should be made to bring them into closer touch with the people. That, of course, does not mean that every person with a grievance, real or fancied, should be allowed to pester them; but there should he a reasonable opportunity for interviewing. AVitli added facility for contact there will arise a better understanding of mutual problems, and with Cabinet containing as it does a number of men with little political experience, the benefits will not be wholly one-sided.

There is much routine work to be done, but it should not be handled in a cursory manner. Representative men from the larger centres have been very patient in the past, travelling to and from AVellington to seek audience with Ministers who without any great inconvenience to themselves, could spend a certain portion of their time in cities outside Wellington. AVitli the establishment of the ministerial offices the barrier will be down, and although a greater portion of the new Cabinet’s time must be spent in V ellington, there is no reason why definite programmes for visits to other centres should not be put into operat ion. Flic public convenience will thus be met. and the Ministers themselves will have additional opportunity for learning the needs <>l the people. That, after all, is what they were appointed to study,