MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1905. THE GREAT LAND QUESTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8145, 20 November 1905, Page 4

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1905. THE GREAT LAND QUESTION.

The statement wliicli appeared in these columns on Saturday of Mr W. T. Wood's attitude towards the most important issue before the electors lias evidently caused a flutter in the Governmental dovecots, for our morning contemporarj', who some time ago announced its intention "to sit with folded hands" so far as the election was concerned, has to-day au obviously inspired article in which an attempt is made to justify Mr "Wood's action. On Saturday we showed that Mr Wood had declared in favour of the freehold for the back-blocks settler and the leasehold for the man who takes up cleared land under the Lands for Settlement Act. We showed also that he was '"nconsistent—in that, without qualification, he had declared himself to be a leaseholder in 1903. Apart from this we asked Mr Wood how it happened that the freehold, if it was good'for the back block,settler, was not good for the Land for Settlement man. Our contemporary makes answer that if tihe freehold is given to tenants under the Lands for Settlement Act, and Crown tenants are " permitted to barter their holdings, land gambling will become a favouri- c pursuit, and the reaggregatiou of estates only a matter of time." If there is a danger of the aggregation of large estates, although we do not admit it, will not the process, take place also in the back blocks when the land becomes cleared? This is a question which requires answering, but it will prove a difficult one for the advocate of the leasehold. According to our contemporary the granting cf the freehold will be followed by the aggregation of large estates," 1 yet Mr Wood proposes- to give the back-blockers the. freehold. As we have said the electors want this point elucidated, they want' Mr Wood to tell them what posi-

tionho really takes up. As for our contemporary's gibe at the Farmers' Union, we may out that the farmers are the people most interested in the land question,. also that one of the planks of the Union is the freehold. The Union is, therefore, justified in taking steps to bring into effect their views on the subject. '" '