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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 149, 20 December 1911, Page 4

capable man in Parliament at exaggerating trifles into matters of terrible moment. He has for many years been a persistent scold. He might be expected to quarrel about threepence, not because the threepence mattered, but because it is his weakness to assume a portentous knowledge of the subject. That he has been consistently "bowled out" has minimised the effect of his dreary prophecies that New Zealand is almost bankrupt. He has some claim to the Defence portfolio, for he has been a volunteer officer for many years, is a colonel and a keen soldier. The best man in the Cabinet "forecasted" by the Auckland Herald is unquestionably Mr. Herdman, who, it is hoped, will do little harm with the portfolios of Justice and Education. He will at least be art educated Minister of Education. He is quite a good lawyer, and neither political foe nor friend has every questioned his perfect uprightness and honor. Mr. Herries, who, so the forecast says, may become Minister of Railways and of Native Affairs, is one of the broadest-mind-ed and most able of the leading Oppositionists. It is possible to imagine Mr. Herries imparting some vigor into the administration of native affairs, and it may be he would make a satisfactory Minister of Railways. Whether the Herald was merely joking when it picked Mr. Fraser as Minister of Public Works and Labor it is hard to say. Mr. Fraser is a Conservative of the bluest type, and is, besides, almost an octogenarian. He has never taken the' least trouble to disguise the fact of his Conservatism. To assume that he will have a real sympathy with Labor generally or with the Labor members in his own party is to make a long shot. We are faced with the proposition that one of the most distinguished postmasters in the world, and one, -moreover, whose great ability has been recognised by every country, shall be succeeded by Mr. R. H. Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes has, of course, had no administrative experience of any kind, if we except the management of his own considerable affairs and his position as officer commanding a volunteer troop. In the matter of comparison no two persons could be more unlike in all respects than Mr. T. Mackenzie, the Minister for Agriculture, and Mr. Buchanan, who is tipped to gather in the portfolio. Mr. Buchanan is, of course, a pastoralist of vast experience, who has fought a hard battle, and has acquired immense areas in the Wairarapa. That he can have any sympathy with the small agriculturalist, a sympathy that infers a desire to disgorge some of his immense holdings, is unbelievable. That he can possibly be a "Liberal" Minister of Agriculture not even his supporters in the tied-up parts of the Wairarapa can hold. He, too, is very old. Mr. Massey is given, or gives himself, the portfolio of Lands. If his achievements only reached one-half of his professions and promises he should make the most successful Minister of Lands the Dominion has ever known. The Auckland Herald also mentions that, the Hon. O. Samuel, M.L.C., will receive the Attorney-Generalship. This would be an excellent appointment, but we question if the gentleman in question hankers after a return; to the stressful life. The Herald states that "it is considered probable that representation in the new Cabinet must be given to Taranaki." If the Hon. Samuel is not available we must look to Mr. Okey or Mr. Hine, or even Mr. Pearce, to supply the vacancy, but just in what capacity it would be hard to say. Either Mr. Hine or Mr. Okey would, at any rate, be an improvement on some of the Conservative octogenarians that are suggested. One thing is certain to our mind, unless Mr. Massey calls to his Cabinet young and progressive men, his reign will be very short, for there is no real disposition in New Zealand to revert to an era of domination by the owners of the fullest purses and the most broad acres. The blue coat of Conservatism is over most of the men in the suggested Cabinet, and is retrogression, the locking up of the land, and antagonism to social measures, although, of course, it would at once endanger the political life of any party to endeavor to upset any of the social measures now on the' Statute Book.