THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8204, 7 August 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1906.

The momentous question is at laßt settled. Ihe Cabinet has been reconstructed and the new members are those who, it was pretty generally thought, would be selected by Sir Joseph Ward to be among hia colleagues in the responsible and important work of guiding the affairs of State. From the Government memo, published elsewhere it will be seen that two members of the late Cabinet have not been selected, viz., Mr T. Y. Duncan and Mr 0 H. Mills. It is, however, to the credit of the gentlemen mentioned that they both made it clear to Sir Joseph thst if he decided not to inelude them in the reconstructed Cabinet they were prepared to bow to his deoision with a good graoe. For some years past both Messrs Duncan and Mills have been subjected to very severe oritioism at the hands of the Press, but when it was practically known that they I would not be included in the Minisj try the action of some newspapers in I "triumphing" over the omission of

these gentlemen from the Cabinet is not in good taste. The three members of the Cabinet, Messrs M'Nab, Millar and Fowlds, who are new to Ministerial responsibility, should render good aooounts of themselves. .Messrs M'Nab and Millar should both have beenj appointed years ago, but to go into this question would be to hark back to. what was a most unsatisfpotory feature of our political life, and one in regard to which there is no necessity to make any comment. Sir Joseph Ward's pro-, mise that the reconstructed Cabinet should be a strong one has been redeemed, although it might easily, have been made still 'stronger, but, nevertheless, if the Premier' beeps all the pledges that |be has made, and will make in the course of bia Premiership, as well as he has done in the present instanoe, the people of this oountry will certainly rightly hold him in high estimation. There is plenty of work for the new Cabinet to (To, and with the assistance of a very strong party, the oountry as a whole should, in a comparatively short [time, feel the benefit of the greatly needed reconstruction. Sir Joseph Ward, in the course of a speech, shortly after his return, stated that he did not intend to go in for any extravagant finance. It had been said that go in for a five million loan, cut he did not intend to do anything of thei kind. Five millions sounds, and certainly is, a very large sum, but two and three-quarter millijns is, also, no trumpery sum, and it is true that for several years oast the Government's borrowings have averaged somewhere about two and threequarter millions annually. If the new Premier were to advocate raising a loan of five millions we do not know that there would be any great cause for alarm; what would be of vital interest to the oountry would be how the money was expanded, In short, in ayoang, and very much undeveloped and rapidly growing oountry such as this is, it is the administration that is of paramount importance. It hardly matters, generally speaking, how much money is borrowed, provided it is properly expended on reproductive works. It is good administration first; and last that is required.