THE LAND BOARD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13677, 20 August 1908, Page 4

THE LAND BOARD.

Wft are inclined to agree With the cor- '• respondent who writes to us to-day,'ifhab the selection of a special . representative • tipon the Land Board will not. do the Crown tenants a great deal of good. ■ln •"' , saying that we by no means < endorse his insinuation that the Board, consists practically of the Commissioner. That may bo a fact, or it may not; as the meetings of the Board receive bo little attention. ' from the Press in Christchurch, we aw» quits unable to form an opinion as to ithe amount of influence upon the business exerted by members other than the official head. We very much doubt,-' however, whether any Commissioner, even if he, . were so inclined, could reduce his colleagues to mere puppets ns is • suggested; in the letter to which wo are referring,, and we are confident that a man like>->-~->fr"Fringle, for example, would resent the, implication that his attendance at: the -Board table was only a farce.', Assuming;,, for the sake of argument that/il) was Bo,* the position would not be a great deal : improved by the advent of a, memben" elected by the Crown tenants to ntteiift specially ,to their interests. TJ>e'/t>nly i-epresentative" of the settlers on a Board who has attained prominence through, hia zeal for his duties wa& ejected last week from the meeting of the Hawke's Bay -.. Land.Board in'consequence of his persistence ■'-. in making comments derogatory, to the other members of tlie Board 1 and,of '' : his refusal to obey. the ruling !of tjife chair. Of course" it is'nofc to be supposed? ' that every member elected by the, CrowJi tenants will bo equally unfortunate, bufcv we merely quote the incident to show how helpless such'" a representative tnay when be comes 'in conflict with' the' BoaJ:d> ~ '. As : to the intelligent election .of thejaa members*,we "con&ss that we da toot eeft .

how the tenants are to mate a.judicious choice unless the candidates -undertake an vle'etioneering tour more extensive than any which has to he entered upon by any candidate for a constituency in Canterbury, "and few of them will have, either the leisure or the funds for that. Altogether it -appears us if the new system promises no very remarkable benefits.