The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1913.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 3963, 20 June 1913, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1913.

It is not at all likely, we should say, that the MasAN unhappy Sug- sey Government gestion. will accept the remarkable advice which has been tendered it by the “Auckland Herald” on the question ofi the selection of a successor to theh late Sir Arthur Guinness in regard to J the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives. What our northern contemporary had to say on the subject, it will be remembered, was that it would be a very good thing if the vacant position were given to the Hon. W. Fraser, Minister for Public Works The chief reason why this course was. urged was, however,

not that Mr Fraser is eminently fitted to occupy the office of Speaker, although that unquestionably happens to be the case. It was the position that the “Herald’’ affected to believe “that as Minister for Public Works on the other hand Mr Fraser was not , as likely to give as much satisfaction.” Down at bedrock, its complaint really resolved itself into this: “that more money was becoming inevitable and an active Public Works policy was expected,” ... so that it was felt “that a younger Minister more capable of enduring fatigue and of becoming personally conversant with the needs of the country would certainly do better work.” The most astonishing part of the indictment against Mr Fraser as Minister for Public Works was, however, contained in a subsequent assertion to the .effect “that the Government would receive a severe blow if Public Works money is spent in an unsatisfactory and unprofitable manner.” Now, it seems’ to us, we may say, that these complaints against Mr Fraser’s administration of the Public Works Department bear self-condemnation upon their very face. We do not, of course, say that no fault can be found with reference to the results that have accrued in connection with this great Department for the past year. But what we do say is that there is not in the whole of the present Parliament a member who under similar circumstances could or would have given better service to the Dominion in the carrying out of the duties of Ministerial head of the. Department of Public Works. Does it not seem strange that our northern contemporary had no fault to find with Mr Fraser until the present time, when the office of Speaker has to be filled P It is, however, happily the position for the present Minister for Public Works that the remarkable attack that has been made upon him has brought him a number of glowing unsolicited testimonials from equallv important journals, which unlike the “Auckland Herald,” do not happen to be Ministerial organs. The “Evening Post” for example, says: “What is at- the back of the “Herald’s” mind? Why the plausible pleading for an ‘lrishman’s rise’ for Mr Fraser P Is the reason a desire for a Minister of a spendthrift temperament, especially when the fervent, tireless deputationists ask for sweets for Auckland? The ‘Herald’ does not sneer at Mr Fraser’s years as certain Opposition organs have done; hut it does unfairly insinuate that Mr Fraser is not physically equal to the demands upon him. We dispute this suggestion utterly. What predecessor of Mr Fraser exerted himself more strenuously to learn the country’s real needs? What Minister was as courageous in speaking his mind? Our belief is that this country can be served as least as well by Mr Fraser as by any other member of Parliament, and probably better by Mr Fraser as Minister of Public Works.” Even more pleased, however, will Mr Fraser he with the very handsome tribute which is paid him by the leading Anti-Re-form journal. “We have not the same right as the ‘Herald’ has,” remarks thhe “Lyttelton Times’’, “to discuss a delicate affair of this kind, but we should like to say that there is not the slightest ground for the suggestion that Mr Fraser is too old for the work he has undertaken or for the further suggestion that lie may spend money in ‘ail unsatisfactory and unprofitable manner.’ The country has never had a more careful or a more conscientious administrator at the Public Works Office and if- he is turned out simply because he is pursuing the prudent policy of his predecessor and not building all the railways that were promised by some of his supporters during the election campaign it will be one of the grossest party scandals that have ever disgraced our parliamentary life.” The real position, so far as we can see, is that the only journals that will be found to support the contention of the “Herald” will be those which, like our northern contemporary, apparently believe in rushing into wholesale expenditure irrespective of the fact that it might be much more in the true interests of the Dominion to “cut its coat according to the cloth.”