THE SENIOR CABINET MINISTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2498, 11 May 1909, Page 6

THE SENIOR CABINET MINISTER.

A COLLOQUY ON MR. CARROLL

Solomon, jmir., in “The Citizen.”) You tell me, 0 excellent friend, that I ought not to like the Honorable James Carroll, that I ought, in fact, to strongly disapprove of him._ He has been for seventeen yeai's a Minister of; the Crown, you say, and what has he done for the Maoris, oT for New Zealand? . e . Let 'me remind you of the admirable work-of the Maori Health Officers, Dr. Buck and Dr. Pomare, and* the rest, and the inspectors and nurses who have of late- yeare gone in and out of the pas, taught the people how to live wholesomely, and thus.;;saved the live-s of infants and lengthened the days of the aged. Sanitation/ and civilisation are Spreading daily under the benignant ismile of Timi Kara, father of his people. What’s that? The Native Health Service is run by the Public Health Department? Well, I only said Mr. Carroll smiled on it, and you can’t deny that.- '■ ■ ■ '■< ' 1 UPLIFTING THE MAORI.

Then look at the Native schools. They are training up a generation ,in all that pertains to good citizenship. They' are radiant centres of sweetness and light in every Maori village. The older- Maoris know it, and set the pakeha an example in tlieir willing service on school committees, their zeal in repressing truancy, their constant encouragement of teachers and scholars. The race is being uplifted through its children. ■ , ' And you, excellent friend,-with your, inconvenient candour, you reply : ‘ Certainly, but Mr. Carroll merely looks pn while the Education Board under hio -colleague, Mr. Fowlds, does the work But you can’t deny that Mr. Carroll <rrive the Maoris the beginning of-local self-government, when he inaugurated the Maori Councils and endowed them with the dog tax for revenue. “Nor can you deny that the Councils have thriven so poorly that the Premier has lately given, them into the hands of Mr, Ngata, wlio means to make great improvements.” . But there are the Maori Band Boards, started by Mr. Carroll. * c And rendered almost useless by tiie mcurable ‘taihoa’ of the Native Department under the Minister’s direct supervision at Wellington.” - NATIVE LAND PURCHASE. Nevertheless (I proceed) many large areas of Native lands have been acquired by the Government and made available for settlement. The Premier has <inoted figures, which I forget. “Quite so,” replies the excellent but contrary one, “and the Native Land Commission has quoted figures, which 1 don’t forget. Parliament, at/the suggestion of the Commission has sanctioned an agreement under which the Tongariro Timber Company buys from the Ngatituwharetoa Maoris the timber and the timber only—on 40,000 acres of land, at prices averaging £l2 10s per acre. The Company lias no right to the land savfe only; to the use of it so far as may be necessary to have the timber cut and removed. Aud the Commission in its reuort stated tliat the price paid for similar land, containing enormous aroas of bush averaged about 10s an acre, and this price included the freehold. The Waimarmo and Rangitoto-Tuhua Blocks were quoted as examples.” GOOD OLD “NEW ERA.”

Well, at least von will admit that the Native Land Commission opens a new era for the Maori Race? “Ah, yes!” says the friendly disputant. “ ‘New era for the Maori race.’ ' Seem to have heard the phrase before. It or something like it, was very free]v ’ used by the Minister and Ins political friends’- when the Land Boara.s nnd Councils were set up. In speech after speech,' during session after session, and at election after election, it has been made to appear that the genius of the Native Minister, and his loyalty to ‘the noble race whose blood runs in bis veins’ (another phrase that sounds familiar) was about to endow them with all sorts of social and politic--1 al blessedness. He has made the same eloquent, poetical, hopeful speech time after time, and meanwhile there have been land purchases like those alluded ' to by the Commission, and almost all that has been done for the Maoris lias been done by Government Departments not under his control, and by the Young Maori Party and the Churches. 1 allow that the Nativ<4 Land Court is in his Department, and not in the Department of Justice, but you will not argue that lie has had any great amount of work in that connection. As : ‘ fad as the Native Land Commission, its very existence is a censure upon him. It would never have been necessary it the Minister- of Native Affairs and his Department had been vigorous and. -efficient. Besides, we do not yet Aaiow . how much of its intended good; will struggle through the morass of Ministerial and Departmental taihoa to the solid ground of accomplished fact.” HIS CHARMING PERSONALITY. Hold, my excellent but censorious friend. Are you writing this article, or am V? You have given reasons .for disapproving of the Minister. Leave me a little space for reasons why one may like the man. If you yourself, critical . as you are, had ever really studied the "i face and figure you would almost like him. Tall, broad-shouldered, straight, with capacious head and massive features, it is a figure of power. Yet there is nothing angular about James Carroll. "He is not fat, but all the. corners are rounded. That is a clumsy expression, but I do not think the English language can adequately describe the amiable outline, the modified strength- the softened squareness of his corporeal form. Part of its charm lies in the ’perfect correspondence with the mind of tiie .man. There is the force, and with it inseparably, mingled, the easy self-indulgent indolence, and the calm, gentle gait and gestures that show him as tolerant of others’ faults as of lus . owii'. lie bears no malice; cherishes’ no grudge, and £ protest that this, is' not merely to avoid exertion.. He has been a successful peacemaker in more than one day' of trouble with discontented and minatory Natives'. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. And I like hardly less his one out;burst of violent action. It was a long -time ago. Ho is now 52, and he was then a bov of 13. Ho volunteered, with other bo.vs, and fought under Hamlin 5; against To Kooti. So littlo tailioa was there .about him then, that he ’..achieved special mention, in despatches, and was awarded the New. Zealand y'-modal and £50.. The episode is ulum- ' dnatiug. * Mr. Carroll as a soldier always on active service:-would be splendid. . Hie maternal ancestry, gavq. him The disposition of a rangitaralyvho must either fight or deliver orations or loaf. He probably finds.* on the racecourse but. a lmor substitute 'of battle, and there- id dess ,>fight JU : --politics : now- than . there j was; inMlr. time. 5 Therefore .I. urn Ivara -The sessional index; > shows that no Minister

last year .spoke less frequently, ini tlie House than the Hon. J. Carroll. It was a real loss, for he.is.one of our very few.orators, and has no rival in turning the rich melodious cadence. -

A RUMOR. ; > “Absolutely without foundation,” was Sir Joseph Ward’s remark on'the rumor that Mr. Carroll was about to retire from the Ministry. Of course, lie meant that there was no foundation for an official .announcement of resignation. Now, Mr. Carroll , has been longer in the Cabinet than any other Minister. He is the only; due among the present colleagues of Sir Joseph Ward whom Sir Joseph did not choose. Mr. Ngata- has been given much of his work and much ol his mana, and needs onlv election by a European constituency to qualify him for the Ministry. Foundation enough, surely, tor a rynior. „ ' -- ■ ■ ■ . -