LAND SETTLEMENT.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 11

LAND SETTLEMENT.

THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE WAIU> GOVERNMENT.

(SrECIAI, TO "TH* TRESS.") WELLINGTON, May 22. The Ward. Government's qwn official figures disclose that instead of any reduction in tho number of big estates during tho five- and a half years' Premiership of Sir Joseph Ward, they increased iv number from 918 to 101 G. "This fact," says tho "Dominion," "cannot be disputed, and the Ward-. ists do not attempt to deny tho accuracy of their own figures. Instead, they rely on keeping the public in ignorance of the facte and on their capacity to fool tho electors with finesounding assertions, utterly at variance with tho true position of things. If Sir Joseph Ward is so anxious to break up tno largo estates, how is it that during his term of office the largo estates increased in number? If ho is so anxious to promote closer settlement and provide land for tho landless, why is it that ho did not seize the opportunity to do so in an effectivo way when he held office with a record il.>Drity at his bjek? When the public hear Sir Joseph Ward and. his friends repeating to-day their old cry for closer settlement and shouting abuse of the 'squattors,' they can judge of their sincerity by tho figures we have quoted from tho official records published under authority of tho Ward Government itself."