MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. FRIDAY, NOV. 24, 1905. AN UNENVIABLE POSITION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8149, 24 November 1905, Page 4

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. FRIDAY, NOV. 24, 1905. AN UNENVIABLE POSITION.

When our local contemporary took up tkc cudgels in favour of Mr "Wood's candidature after making himself ridiculous by announcing that in this election he intended to " sit with folded hands," one. of the first things he did was to declare himself strongly in favour oE Mr Wood's views on the land question. Subsequently we were able to show that our contemporary, a few months previously, had expressed opinions the very opposite to those he now advocates, and in an effort this morning to bolster up the weak cause he is supporting, he charges us with "[having no defiuitc opinions " .and displaying " ineptitude." Our contemporary is welcome to his opinions, but we have no hesitation in stating that if a vote of tbe farmers were taken as to which journal holds the soundest views and has pursued the most straightforward course in dealing with the land question, our local Icontemporary would be in a hopeless minority. The Standard has fixed views regarding the freehold, and ,it has consistently supported tlil.s form of tenure. Our local contemporary lias also supported " the freehold for everyone " without qualification, but because the Opposition have a candidate in the field whom he personally dislikes he has' seen lit to turn his coat and support the leaseholders.

To show how our contemporary can twist and turn, the fact is ■worth recording that on June 7 he described the Land Commission editorially as being broken in twain and flying phantomlike through the country pursued by a cloud of witnesses screaming eerily "we want roads" and "we want the freehold," and he argued that if the Land Commission was honest it would say there was a Urge concensus of opinion in favour of tli-i freehold. He also stated that " if the Commission is dishonest it will put in a special pleader, against the weight of evidence, on be-

half of the land nationalises who have learned their wisdom from books, in intervals of toasting their feet at the fire grates of t'he City Trades Halls."

Our contemporary is to be pitied for the attitude he lias adopted; he is neither fish, flesh, fowl nor good red herring, and therefore to discuss the matter further with him is a waste of time. But the one striking fact remains. The farmers want the freehold; they also want a candidate who will support their demands, and all the platitudes of our local contemporar} Iwiil not change their views in this

respect,