The Press. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1895. MR. W. P. REEVES BECOMES A "SOCIAL PEST."

Press, Volume LII, Issue 8271, 23 November 1895, Page 6

The Press. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1895. MR. W. P. REEVES BECOMES A "SOCIAL PEST."

A remarkable piece of news reaches us from the North Island, which we have no doubt will greatly astonish the Radical supporters of the Hon. W. P. Reeves. That gentleman, we are told ou excellent authority, has now become a " social pest" on quite an ambitious scale. In partnership with a relative, he has bought a Maori leasehold of several thousand acres in the Mokau district. The lease contains a purchasing clause, and in the course of timo we shall no doubt see the Minister for Labour proprietor in fee simple of a very large and fine estate. How he manages to reconcile such conduct with the bitter taunts and sneers which he used to launch at owners of land we cannot say. We have no doubt some of his friends will ask him to explain. It was a painful shock to the supporters of the Ministry when the Hon. Mr. Cadman* was discovered, during his term of office as Native Minister, to be dabbling in Maori lands upon an extensive scale. Mr. Cadman, when he •was found out, deemed it expedient to resign. Mr. Reeves, more fortunate, hopes to get the Agent-Generalship— whether as a reward for this last manifestation of his "Liberal" principles we cannot say. But Mr. Beeves and Mr. Cadman are not the only Ministers who have shown their abhorrence of " social pests " by the singular method of joining their ranks. Sir Patrick Buckley, we hear, had a share in a Maori land speculation some time ago but has since sold out. He owned the land, however, while he was still a Minister. Three members of the present Government, therefore, including the immaculate Mr. Beeves, have dabbled in Maori lands, have joined the ranks of the earth - hungerers and land monopolists they so much abused, and have acquired more than the 640 acres which their colleague, the Hon. John M'Kenzie, says is enough for any man. Now we ourselves see no crime in a colonist purchasing land in New Zealand—even if it should exceed the sacred 6J.0 acres prescribed by the Minister for Lands. We certainly think, however, that Ministers while in office would do well to keep themselves clear of speculations in Maori lands, and above all things we hate cant, humbug and deceit. Now, we do think that the Hon. W. P. Beeves has hiraibugged and deceived his constituents most shamefully, and that his canting about the iniquity of owning land when contrasted with his conduct in acquiring as much as he could lay his hands upon is b9noath contempt. A few brief months ago in Mr. Beeves's choice vocabulary a land-owner of the ordinary type was a "social pest," but a land-owner who bought his land from " the poor Maori " was a wretch for whom no terms of condemnation could be too severe. Such purchases, Mr. Beeves used to say, rising to his highest pitch of invective, were " smeared with blood and rum." This was the language of Mr W. P. Beeves, posing before his "masters" as a democratic suppliant for their votes. Mr. Beeves in Parliament, Mr. Beeves in the Ministry, with opportunities to save money and chances of " spotting " Maori lands, Mr. Beeves, with the prospect of becoming Agent-General and mixing in London society,, is, somehow or other, quite a different person. He regards such questions from another point of view. Possibly at this moment he is looking ahead at a "social pest " of the future. He sees a few years of fashionable life in London, spent in rubbing shoulders with " the quality," he sees a knighthood, and finally he sees the titled owner returning to his fine estate in the North Island to enjoy his leisured ease. It is a pleasant picture, and all Mr. Eeeves's ardent democracy, which never sat very well upon hini, vanishes a"way. As for those whom he has duped and cajoled by his sham professions—let them rave. Hβ has got all he wants out of them he thinks, and now they can do him no harm.