The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1911.

Evening Star, Issue 14624, 21 July 1911, Page 6

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1911.

Mr G. M. Thomson holds a deservedly high place in the Mr C. M. Thomson, esteem of the people M.P. oi Dunedin. As a

practical educationist, as a scientist, and as a philanthropic citizen he has enjoyed an eminently favorable reputation for many years; and of late there has been an all too sufficient and sombre reason for a deepening of ihe kindly sentiment with which he is regarded. "Sunt lachrimse rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt." Even as a politician he has been happy in escaping pronounced animosity. As he observed last night, he is not a very strong party man. He makes a point of avoiding extravagant language, and though (as we think) he has attached himself to the wrong side his moderation might be copied with advantage by the more militant spirits of the Opposition. He told his constituents that he did not

propose to indulge in a general tirade after tho fashion of some controversialists, and it may be suspected that his philosophic temperament is often offended by the weird antics of the, dervishes of his party. Only once last night, as it seems to us, did he exceed tho limits of reasonable argument, and that was when he went out of his way to endorse Mr A. R. Barclay's preposterous suggestion that the New Zealand Dreadnought represented " the price of a baronetcy." This uncharacteristically malign remark was peculiarly inapposite, coming as it did in the midst of a convincing and timely defence of the new (system of compulsory training. Mr Thomson's tribute to the excellent work of Mr James Allen in connection with, this movement was richly deserved; and though we have said the same thing, in effect, more than once before, it may nob be superfluous to repeat that no public man, not even the Prime Minister himself, has been more vitally instrumental than the member for Bruce both in quickening the patriotic intelligence of the community and in facilitating the course of parliamentary action. To Mr Thomson himself, too, a measure of credit is due, and we have taken occasion more than once to quote passages from the fine persuasive argument which he contributed to the debate on the first Defence Bill of 1909.

We are afraid that the Leader of the Opposition will frown disappointedly- when he notes Mr Thomson's admission that during the present Parliament the Government have passed measures that had benefited the people at large. Reasonableness of this' kind is quite inconsonant with the prevalent nature of anti-Ministerialist tactics. It must be added, however, that the speech was not lacking in sayings of tho approved Mwseyit© order —suggesting, indeed, that if he gave time and pains to the task Mr Thomson might yet take a pass degree in the school of pugnacious partisanship. The misleading reference to the circumstances of the last loan is an instance of what we mean. Mr Thomson said, as it is the fashion in certain quarters to say, that the Liberal' Government had lost touch with the democratic mass, and presumably the remark was intended to convey an inference that this lost contact had been captured by the Conservative Opposition. It is a pleasant dream, airily unrelated to known facts. It would be unfair to emphasise Mr Thomson's failure to present an attractive or very intelligible exposition of the so-called " Opposition policy." The fault Hps not in the expositor, who did his best with a forlorn job, but in the essential character of that piece of crazy quiltwork which Mr Massey dignifies with the name of a policy or a platform. Mr Thomson is (to use his own term) an ardent Freeholder, and he seeks to justify his apotheosis of land alienation by a comparison of national conditions under various systems ; but we entertain a suspicion that his studies | hare been rather one-6ided, and it is a pity that his statement that "aggregation coold be prevented." was not enforced with a detailed account of the methods to be employed. Despite appaiently careful and well-meant restrictions, land aggregation is T&mpant in New Zealand to this day, and that it would enjoy still merrier and more rapid progress under the kindly shelter of a Massey Ministry is indicated by all the rules of political probability. The Government policy, says Mr Thomson, is a policy of opportunism. Be this as it may (and the use of the phrase is just another fashion, part of the cant idiom of partisanship), •'inopportune" is certaiidy the right epithet to apply to the. " policy " of the "other fellows" who are begging with such pathetic eagerness for a " turn."

THE explanations of the genesis and evolution of the Mokau Land MUCh Ado About Purchase, which are Nothing. given iu this isuuo by

the. Acting Premier, the chairman of the Mokau Company (Mr M'Nab), and the company's solicitor (Mr C. A. Loughaan) should satisfy all impartial readers that the transaction is an equitable one in the public interest. With the nnancial troubles of Mr "Mokau" Jones (and we would remark in passing that it must not be forgotten that those troubles originated mainly in England) the people of the Dominion have nothing whatever to do, though possibly a good deal of sympathy will go out to him for having been deprived from one cause or another of the fruits of what were generally known to be a very valuable "concession." What has to be borne in mind is thai at ChTistchtireb, at Hastings, at Auckland, and, indeed, almost on every olatform on which the Leader of the Opposition has been heard during the past five or six weeks he wished the electors to believe that the Mokau business was in contravention of the existing law, and that Sir James Carroll, who in his Dunedin speech had been sarcastic at the expense of the 133 lucky European landlords who possesesd between them thirteen million acres of the Dominion's soil, had not been above sacrificing the material interests of his poor compatriots when validating by Order-in-Couhcil the "deal" in native lands effected by that "oang of speculators," otherwise robbers, known as the Mokau Land Syndicate. It would now seem that there has been much cry and precious little wool. "Mokau" Jones was dispossessed of his rights by one Hermann Lewis, well known throughout New Zealand as a land and hotel property speculator, who, in turn, ported

with his interest in the Mokau leasee to a Hawke's Bay eyndicato, the personnel of whioh—if "color" in such transactions has to lie considered—is distinctly antiMinisterial. But that syndicate, witih an eye to the main chance, were not averse to turning over their intereets--»why should they be ?—-to a body 6f keen business men at Pahn«rston North, who had been Teinforced by men with brains and commanding capital in other parts of the Dominion. In April last we ment'toned that the directors of the Mokau Coal Company, conscious that they held a good thing, were bent on demonstrating that they could give the peoplo of the- Dominion an object lesson in settling to advantage the nativo lands of the North Island. And they mean to be as good as their word, and time will show that they have received no advantage from, the Government, nor any consideration from the native authorities who are .charged with the duty of protecting the interests of the Maori owners of the lands in question, beyond what would have been obtainable by any set of men who wished to exploit this area and who were prepared to risk their money in overcoming what were thought to be considerable difficulties in the way of acquiring a valid title. And if our information is well founded, we have some idea that the coal deposits on the Mokau have not been wholly transferred, while the Government have been offered the river frontages at a reasonable price. But theao are minor poinie, which will bo brought out when the promised debate takes place on the demand to set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole■ transaction. Meanwhile, vre would ask : Would all this bother havo arisen if Mr Robert M'Nab had not been in tho field as the Ministerial candidate, for the Palmerston seat, and is reported to be making solid progress with his campaign?