MISLEADING INFORMATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 9

MISLEADING INFORMATION.

Sir,—The verdict of the recent general election indicated a most general desire on the part of the electors for Reform, and when shortly the work begins I am anxious to see it thorough enough to cleanse the office of the High Commissioner in London. The people of England are accustomed to reliable if sometimes nnpalatable information from their own State Departments, and naturally enough attach similar trust to the State offices of the colonies. With what result? I will state my own case, which is, I know, representative of many. A few months since I interviewed a prominent official of the New Zealand Government in London, who iuformed me (quoting, his long residence in New Zealand as qualification) that most excellent dairying land was procurable at £i per acre, outside price: that the Government had plenty of it, and. further, that land in and adjacent to the City of Wellington could be had in fair supplv at from iCO to .£7O per acre for bmldin'" What are the facts? Good dairying land is wortii anything from .£2O t; 0 ,£to per acre, _ (he Government are without a rood to bless either themselves or anybody- el.so with, and. Wellington land 'i s worth about as much per yard my informant said it was worth per acre Was ever such ineptitude? Such' poor value for a large salary! If the truth about the scarcity of laud except at almost prohibitive ..figures is not the best way to draw young pen .to New Zealand, 1 still contend, that it ls-morallv obligatory on a State Department to give facts toot fallacies), and- to employ .representatives at Home, who will_ disclose the full facts. I assume that this is another example of political appointments; and that the nominees have to tell the . tale to suit the Ministry. I venture to hope, however, that at no far distant date experience, efficiency, and honesty will replace what is apparently a combination of ignorance, ineptitude, and inaccuracy at Hie London offices of the New Zealand Government.—l am, etc., S. MAKTELL.