FROM BAD TO WORSE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8362, 24 February 1913, Page 6

FROM BAD TO WORSE

The Hon. W. F. Massey, the gentleman who, in his official capacity, is so easily stirred to mirth, has sought the assistance of Mr R. T. Sadd, Commissioner of Crown Lands at Napier, to explain away the awkward circumstances surrounding the scandal of the disposal of the 164-acre farm at Tahoraite at one-half its value. Mr Sadd’s strongest point is that we obtained our information from the “ Dannevirko News.” Now, in this particular Mr Sadd is quite wrong. The “News” is a squatters’ organ also, and we would not think of taking information concerning land matters from such a source. Our information was thoroughly reliable. It was obtained by personal observation. We saw the freeholders jostling each other at the ballot, their fingers nervously clutching marked cheques, and their pockets bulging with notes and gold. Wo heard their gleeful anticipatory opinions that the land they hoped to win and buy was easily worth £l6 per acre. If we accept Mr Sadd’s assurance that the full market value of the land was £8 per acre, then we must ask that gentleman to explain why 307 persons were hustling for possession of it at its full market value? And if all these 307 persons were vainly struggling to get one small farm at Tahoraite at its full market value, why are the monopolised broad acres of Hawke’s Bay not out up, and offered even at the full market value to the people who are so eager to establish small farm homes on them? Mr Sadd, in his further explanation, shows that ho is a liberal-minded gentleman after our own heart. He says certain applicants were rejected because they were not landless. This is certainly gratifying. But what an indictment this furnishes of the action of the Invercargill Board, endorsed by Mr Massey, of allowing one Wilson, who held 200 acres of freehold and 190 acres of leasehold, to go to a ballot against a landless applicant and obtain _ the section on his promise to divest himself of the land he already possessed. Evidently this sort of thing is not tolerated by Mr Sadd, though it is defended by the Hon. W. F. Massey, from which we conclude that Mr Sadd has a better conception and appreciation of the spirit and, intention of the land settlement laws than his Ministerial chief.