The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1924. THE OVERSEAS CRITIC.

Southland Times, Issue 19345, 10 September 1924, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1924. THE OVERSEAS CRITIC.

Those glum people who have been and are still assuring us that Mr Massey is leading the country into black ruin, and that the Dominion is in a disastrous plight, must be disappointed with The Financial News which, being free of Party influence so far as this country is concerned, examines not merely the Budget, but all the circumstances of trade and industry, and gives a verdict against the Party panic-mongers. The Financial News is concerned with the position of the Dominion from the viewpoint of the man who has money to invest, and its staff of experts are not worried about the feelings of the politicians in this country, while they have information about New Zealand elaborate enough to make their findings reliable. The member for Invercargill has been among the croakers, but he so often allows his friends to fly kites for his entertainment and use, that it is on rare occasions that he commits himself. That he was a prophet of gloom, however, can be established, and he, with some of his Party intimates, must find The Financial News rather disconcerting when it declares that New Zealand is

the most prosperous country in the British Empire, and that the possibilities of development still are enormous. This is an effective answer to the dolorous critics, and point is given to the reference to further development in the statement by the Minister of Lands, at Carterton, on Monday. Mr McLeod, urging the need of greater production and sub-division, said that the cutting-up of large holdings would enable this to be done, and then he added, that by large holdings he did not mean the squatter class only, but holdings of 200 to 400 acres of first-class land. This must be brought about gradually, not by bludgeon. efforts, but by gentle persuasion. This is the sane view of sub-division, but it will be found that whenever the land is mentioned, the Liberals and Labourites rush to the fore with statistics which, disregarding the class of land, deal in properties of from 5000 acres and upwards, to prove that sub-division is not going on as rapidly as it did in some remote period of our history. For immediate purposes it is in what are regarded as holdings of moderate size, where the land is of a high class, that sub-division must come, and the Minister of Lands is right in directing attention to this fact as often as* he can, particularly where the gloomy prophets weave their doleful snares to make way for cranky revaluation schemes to save the fanner by ruining him.