The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1910. MR. MASSEY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13055, 25 April 1910, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1910. MR. MASSEY.

Goaded into a semblance of activity by his friends, Mr Massey has taken the field. He has been urged to do something or say something to show that he and his party were not.exactly moribund, and he is now ‘roaring like any sucking dove,” and prophesying a very torrid time for the G'ovsrnment during the Coming session. We have seen how extremely hard.up he is for material for the manufacture of. a militant • iolicy. But in hie recent speeches he has itruck a note that will appeal to the laity of both parties. That is a demand for She. speedy liberation of the vast tracts of Maori land, now locked up and lying un)rodu'h ive, and its speedy settlement on i wholesale scale. If this apparent zeal, f or the settlement of the country is not ihe mere academic and languid interest ,uth which wo are familiar, but is to be a -erious battle-cry, he will find more than’ his own sparse and, ineffective following at his back. The whole country is disgusted with the way in which the Government, now and 1 then, figuratively speaking, bites off a small junk of native land, and throws It to he- scrambled for by hundreds of people. There are vast tracts of native land which the dwindling number of Maoris will never be able to make use of, and there are thousands of people in the Dominion who want land and cannot obtain it. And the Government knows it, too. Only the other day the Minister for Pubic Works stated that in the Tauranga, Opotiki, and Whakatane Counties alone, diere were 2,380,000 acres, of which large area only 152*000 acres are under cultivation. The balance is nearly all Maori-j Dwned, and includes some of the finest land| : in the Dominion. If the vacant country were thrown open to settlement in the quantity?..that; is possible, and thousands-' jettled upon it every year there would he a boom of prosperity, owing to the larger market”' - for-labour and material' ■ that would be created, and the greater volume >f exports available. ‘lf. Mr Massey wduld ibaridon his : 'scheme,,' of national plunder, .md become a strenuous advocate of settlement, he would' 1 gain many supporters. Conversely, v if the Government do not soon jettison their “Old TMan of the Sea” before die next election they will probably p.go . down/with him. -• :