The Press. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1909. TOO SUDDEN A CONVERSION

Press, Volume V, Issue 13598, 6 December 1909, Page 6

The Press. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1909. TOO SUDDEN A CONVERSION

A correspondent, whom we very much respect, "urges that instead of condemning the Government for their inconsistency in having adopted bodily the Opposition policy in regard, to the land question, we ought to give them praise for now endeavouring to carry out the desires of those who wish to turn their. leaseholds into freeholds. We do not deny that great statesmen have changed J&eir minds on important political questions/ and we admit there is truth in ifcte" saying, ' * A wise man sometimes "changes his mind; a foolnever," We cannot recollect a parallel case, however, to that- of the iremarkable somersault of the present Ministry. We need not refer now to the Land Bill of they "nailed to the M mast" . and. in-ontinently hauled ibwh-—beyohd nsminding our readers that it would have made it impossible for,any, settles* going on to the Crown lands in the future to acquire the freehqlb*,; Finding this would not, do, in 1907 -they brought down, and succeeded in passing, another Bill the main feature of which was the renewable leMSfof Sl3 veara. Speaking on the second reading of that Bill, Sir Joseph Ward, among other things, spoke very atrongly against giving the option of acquiring the freehold, to land-fp?-SettUment leaseholders. The Governj|_it : went to the country ■ stl "J'.tis ; ■' last ■ General ' Election as; the exponent* and upholders of thAss'.'▼iswiyw-_jje >. tfcs main plank of the Oppo-rition was the policy of giving to every Stats IsaiashoWer, whether on -Crown lands or settlement lands, the option pf acquiring the freehold. When the, hew House .wa* returned, it was found to contain a majority of members who agreed with the Opposition on thia main issue. Thereupon the Prime 'Minister took an early opportunity of announcing that a new Land BiH would be introduced, conceding the option of the fre-hoSd, not only to holders of the leaae-in-perpetuity on Crown lands, bob. to the leaseholders on land for settlement lands, and even to the bo-dera of the brand-new renewable leases for fcurty-tbree years, wn'ch were the special pride of the Government when they Brought in their Land Bill of 19071 Sir Joseph "Ward has not told us what led to this miraculously suddto cowvereion of his views in' regardf to this important questionMr "Millar-_-t w long ago the most ardent of leasaholders—and Mr Fowlds —who accepts the leasehold pending that happy time when the single tax shall solve all our difficulties—sit firn_Jy on the Ministerial Benches, but remain silent as to any change of heart they may have experienced} so' that we are. left in the dark as to what voice from heaven or • other supernatural agency has stricken, into their souls the truth o\ the : freehold gospel preached by the Opposition. Is it not natural to suppoo*, in Tiew of. their silence, that Ministers have simply sacrificed their convictions, or what they led the country to suppose were their convictions, to.retain their seats? And if this sort of thing is to be * tolerated, and even approved, how can we ever hope for political honesty, and how can the country ever know when to trust its politicians? If we thought that Ministers had been sincerely converter- to our vjews on the freehold, we should naturally rejoice, but we have nothing but contempt for mc- who are ready to swallow their own opinions on the most important questions for the sake of remaining in office. If, as we hope, we

are to have the freehold as the base of our land policy, we. should like to see that policy carried into effect by those who have consistently advocated the freehold, not by those who have striven for yeans to undermine it.