“TIMES” FACTS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 145, 4 June 1913, Page 4

“TIMES” FACTS.

The “New Zealand Times” devotes, in its yesterday’s issue, a full column of its customary distortions to an attempt to fix Mr. Masseys Government with the responsibility for the circumstances leading up to the case of Crown-lease trafficking which last week came before the Supreme Court in. Auckland, and which formed the subject of our leading editorial on Saturday last, fn the. course of its article the “Times,” referring to the particular case mentioned, says, “the whole of the negotiations incidental to this transaction, which is so distinctly opposed to the public interests, happened since Mr. Massey came into power.” This statement is utterly and absolutely devoid of truth, and we have little hesitation in saying that the “Times” is fully aware of the fact. Indeed, quoting as it does from Mr. Justice Cooper’s judgment. it cannot possibly be otherwise than conscious that, for its own purposes, it is circulating a deliberate untruth. In the judgment, as reported throughout New Zealand, the Judge, in reviewing the facts, distinctly states that the term of rlie lease commenced on Ist July, Hi;’. :nd that the contract which wat. the basis of the litigation was made within twelve months of that .lai c. The exact date cf the agree-

mem is nm aiven m any report, which we hove seen, but the Judge says v.-;-ts prior to Ist July 7. 1912. The “Libera”' Government suffered its final defeat, and Mr. Massey came into office, on the 9th of the same month. We tliu- see that, beyond the hearing of rh? case and tindelivery cf a judicial decision which has declared the transaction void, nothing has nceinrod durme 7 months in which M-. Massey held office. The estate v,-.as acquire ■. and subdivided, the valiiarmm- mW Land rentals fixed, the h.alk<t--.d -a.”; ! —be’ci. rhe granted, the 1 effected, a;! f hii'iEr the reign 1 L Liberalism. .And the ’TimeIkmv.v, this as well as w.? do. rhev-

enterprising “settlers” must, there fore, give full credit to ‘‘Liberal" administration for the chance of fortune which has been given them, and "Liberalism" can have but little gratitude for the ■‘Times" making it necessary for us to so emphasise the fact. The •‘Times" further states that

"the large landed proprietor M every part cf New Zealand to-day is employing his wealth, to buy up ad jacent leaseholds, converting them into freeholds and adding them to his already unduly extensive estate." This, too, the "Times knows, not only to be untrue, but to be impossible, unless, indeed, it con tends that the area to which "Liberal" legislation lias limited Crown tenants is sufficient to constitute "an unduly extensive estate.’ In that case. also, the reproach does not attach to the Reform Administration. The only Crown leaseholds which, can be “aggregated” are those which were granted in O.R.P. form by the “Liberal" Government in or prior to 1907, and which have already been, or may hereafter be. converted into freeholds under an absolute and irrevocable right of purchase conferred by that Government. The “New Zealand Times," nor any other Opposition paper—we were going to say dare not, but they will dare anything in the way of untruth —cannot deny this and adduce any maintainable facts to support their denial.