The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1909. A CHEERING SYMPTOM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 578, 5 August 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1909. A CHEERING SYMPTOM.

Exactly what significance wc are to give to' Dr. Findlay's lectures and statements on political questions wc do not know. It is possible that he may be sounding the publicin anticipation of tho coming session. Of'that wc cannot speak with certainty.. In an interview published in Christchurch on Monday he made some references to land tenure which whatever their significance, are at anyrate highly interesting. At; Tiinaru he had said that in future the closer settlement of the land will be the Government's first consideration, while tho question of tenure would, be merely subsidiary, and on being questioned as to his meaning he said that "there was a tendency to make a fetish of tenure, and to place consideration of tenure above the necessity for close settlement." It would be possible to understand this ambiguous observation as a contemptuous dismissal of the demand of the "freehold" party were it not that the Government knows very well that Parliament contains a majority in favour of the. freehold. It is not the way of the Government to adopt a high' and mighty tone towards any majority that can assert itself; its chief concern has even been to carry out Me. Pickwick's advice and shout with the biggest crowd. No; the Attorney-General's sudden discovery of the fact that the- system of tenure is after all of'ilittle importance must lie under- : stood as a hint to the leasehold party I that the Government is no longer strongly attached- to their ideas. The leasehold party, in fact, have been given notice to quit. Another of the Attorney-General's statements makes this quite clear: "If the , cause of close, settlement would be advanced more by one system than by another he would not stand in the way of that tenure being adopted." What is meant by these words is .that .if , Dr. Findlay finds that the freehold. has a determined majority behind it, he will bo prepared to admit that the. freehold is full of virtues hitherto unsuspected. But we need not quarrel with the Government's evident inclination to change its creed. The leasehold party will attend to the duty of censure in this connection. It is enough for us that the Ministry's spokesman has frankly receded from the position that nothing is so important as tho. maintenance of the leasehold, and has admitted that close , settlement is" after all more important than the defence of a Radical doctrine Coming upon the top of ••Mb. Millar's. declaration that the railways must pay, and tho Prime Minister's admission that his Government's extravagance has rendered retrenchment necessary, the At-.' torney-General's abandonment of his former intrausif/iant attitude on the question of land tenure is a cheering proof,of.the value of persistent criticism of a sound character. No doubt, as Mr. -Massey declared in the brief interview that we print to-day, the Land Settlement Finance Bill was introduced last year simply as an electioneering move; but ;the Government has been so deeply impressed .by the; lesson of the general election that'there is every reason to believe that the Bill will be brought for,ward in.earnest in the coming session. The example of Denmark, which Dr. Findlay quoted, as one worth copying in this country, is,the best possible justification of the main contention of the advocates of the freehold. The main cause of the success of Danish agriculture is the fact that, the men who cultivate tho soil own their holdings. In 1907 these industrious freeholders exported butter, eggs, and bacon to the value of £16,000,000—about as much as the total, exports of New Zealand in 1908. The supporters . of the freehold may congratulate themselves on' the fact that Dr.' Findlay is no longer the ardent advocate of the leasehold . tenure • that he used to be. If they feel that he ought to have spoken more strongly, they should remember that they could hardly expect him to admit the superiority of the freehold system all at once.