DOMINION OPINION.

Waikato Times, Issue 12185, 21 September 1911, Page 2

DOMINION OPINION.

Vj Whatever may be said of the policy r.r expediency of breaking up large estates, ur ■,) i preventing our farmers doing too well for themselves by aggregating field to fieli 1 after the fashion time-honored since the days of Job, there can l e no question that he farmer is the backbone of the country, and his stability and prosperity highly desirable. Anything- the Government can do to assist him on reasonable lines should be done and diould enlist general support from the -ommunity, with otiose interest the interest ?••' —:~r is necessarily bound up.—Asaburton Guardian. * * * *i The industrial unrest that is troubling- Great Britain at the present time is regarded by many observant critics as one of the- results of divorcing the >eople from the land. Mr Lloyd George has urged on every possible occasion during the last few years that land monopoly is the greatest of the barriers standing in the way of social reform, and it is a noteworthy fact 'hat the British Conservatives, under the stimulus of the- constitutional :risis, have made the encouragement of the small holder one of the planks of their party platform, though they would associate the reform with the repeal of the. land taxes that are. so obnoxious to the great landowners.— Lyttelton Times. * * * ♦ Good news comes over the cable concerning the Moroccan question. The grounds of a settlement agreetble to roth and not trenching too much on the sensibilities of either of the two principal parties concerned, has been reached, and the citizens of sis nations may sleep soundly at nigiht without fear of international burglars. Though the sense of relief is very real, there remains a pretty widely spread belief that a great war has not teen actually imminent, and that Germany has been all along playing a same of bluff.—Te Aroha Maif. * * • « The announcement made in the Financial Statement relative to the determination of the Government to encourage the developmeot of the ironsand deposits in the Dominion, and even, if needs be, entering upon it as a State concern, should be hailed with much satisfaction throughout the country. The late Mr E. M. Smith, who for some vears represented Taranaki in the House devoted many years of his life, and practically all i": e money he could raise, in persevering efforts to place the industry on a commercial footing. He was such an enthusiast in tins direction that he became obsessessed with the one idea, and his raith in the ultimate success of the utilisation of ironsand for the manufacture of steel of the very best quality, as weil as iron sufficient for the Dominion's needs, was based on the result of years of research and practical experiment. Unfortunately, times were against him, and the worries as well as the rebars he received embittered his last days.—'Taihape Times.