THE WAY OF THE WARD MINISTRY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1212, 22 August 1911, Page 6

THE WAY OF THE WARD MINISTRY.

Sir,-Those of your readers who are interested 111 public affairs havo a very remarkable opportunity in connection with tho inquiry into the Mokau land block transaction. As every one knows tho Government has, to say tho least of it, blundered egrcgiously in this matter and has had the inquiry referred to a committee, which is virtually a packed jury. The opportunity consists in seeiii" how those things are worked by tho Ward Administration—how that .Ministry, first in contravention of tho statute law, sacrifice:; tho interest of the people in tho interest of speculators and syndicates, and then insists on tho case being tried by a committee which contains an overwhelming majority of its own supporters. Of course, the finding is a foregone conclusion. Everything done by the Ministry in the public interest in tho cause of" settlement., with probably observations to the effect that. Mr. Massev had advanced nothing more definite than tho statements uiado by him in Parliament. This is an easy and somewhat plausible way of doing a wriggle, all with a view to appealing to those people who aro influenced by the formal finding of a Par-

liamentary Committee, however it may bu packed or prejudiced, or however strongly or clearly the vital facts may protest against that finding. Those facts certainly do protest in this instance, in the Government's failure to secure the land (as it might ha/e done) for immediate settlement, and llieu in straining tlio terms of the Native Land Act to allow tlio whole 53,000 acres (mineral rights included) to pass into the hands of speculators, with the certain prospective result, that when the settlers does get the laud, ho will have to pay three superadded profits that of the original i buyer (Mr. Herman Lewis), then that of the syndicate who bought from him, and, lastly, that of tho company that bought from the syndicate. Yet all this will bo dubbed by the committee a,s being in the public interest! How do the people enjoy this way of being governed—by tlio Ward Ministry ?tI am, otc., WATCHMAN.