THE MOKAU DEAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1303, 5 December 1911, Page 8

THE MOKAU DEAL.

A HASTINGS TRESS OPINION. (By TcJccraph.-SDCcial CorresponataU ... .. Hastings, December i. Election enthusiasts have spent tho 11 y , kc . cul >' discussing the action of th» Uaw-kes bay shareholders in the Mokau syndicate in giving Mr. M'Nab and the Government a certificate of character Jho "Tribune" deals editorially with the letter, and says; "So far as it was intended to exculpate -Mr. M'Nab from am- part in the issue of tho now famous Order-in-Council, through which this large block pt land passed out of Government control ior settlement purposes, no one can find any fault; it is a matter purely pertinent Jo tho gentlemen named, and i's prompted by a spirit of personal conviction and bv ft commendable, desire for fair plav which" merits all"admiration. If they had'stopned short nt stating their intimate acquaint, mice with tho circumstances of tlie respective purchases by the syndicate from Mr. Hen-man Lewis, and by (he company from the syndicate and of Mr. M'Xab's connection with (he company, and had merely given their assurance bawd on that knowledge that none of the circunistances of these transactions reflected, on Mr. M'Nab, all would have been nuita content, but when they proceed in geueral language to say that tho charges mado against the Government are entirely nn-i true, tho unprejudiced of our readers will join in decliniiiß lo accept the statement, even on tho authority of gentlemen of so high a standing. Indeed, \vc can only conclude that those gentlemen have iii their ardour to clear Mr. M'Nab been somewhat lax in tho construction of their; letter, and mado a statement, or given, grounds for an inference, by no means intended. They can scarcely pretend to any more intimate knowledge than tho vest of the community of what led up to tho consent by the Minister to Mr. Hcrrmaii Lewis's acquisition of the freehold or to have been admitted to any inside information of the motives actuating tho Government. That the Administration is still before the people us guilty of a grave dereliction of its duty, iu allowing ibe Mokau lands to nnss into private hands, there ran bo little doubt, and this despite any lindimr of a partisan committoo or the inferential, and. wo venture to -think. unintentional, absolution granted to it by the ITnwkc'*; May peiitlem<>n. \vh/v*» eh'cf aim, no doubt., was lo relieve Mr. M'Nab from any ' undeserved odium." A correspondent to tlm same jo"rnal advances the conclusion Hint tho letter proves' after all lhat (he nresent Government ig the squatters' friend.

STATEMENT BY MR. MASSEY. ißy Tclcsranh.-l'rcsß Assnrlmlon.i Auckland, December 4. Speaking at Dcvonport to-night, Mr. Massey referred to a letter received l)y Mr. M'Nab in' regard to the Moltau transaction from the Jlawke's Hay idiarohoklcrs and directors of the Mokau Company. Mr. Massey slid the loiter dealt with the transaction l>alv."oi»n tlio * speculator and the company. That was not. the point at all. The question was whether tlio Government had acted' rightly in issuing an Ordcr-ill.Collne.il which allowed a speculator to purchase tlio land. The sulxscquent transaction to the conypniiy might tw perfectly right and legitimate. He po'intod out that nt least one of the men who signed tlio letter was not a member of the Opposition. The statement that the charges brought against Sir .losoph Ward ami the Government worn untrue appeared to him to be libellous, and ho declared that, if it cost him his last shilling ho would make thp authors of tlio letter withdraw the statement or prove it.>