The Dominion. MONDAY. FEBRUARY 10, 1913. THE SOUTHLAND LEASE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1670, 10 February 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY. FEBRUARY 10, 1913. THE SOUTHLAND LEASE.

The controversy .over the case of the Southland gentleman who has applied for tho freehold of: coalbearing land held by him under a lease-in-pcrpetuity is carried a stage furthor to-day by the Prime Minister. ■ Referring to a certain legal opinion that tho lessee is entitled to the ownership of the land and the rhincrals, Mr. Massey says that tho position is exactly as it was, and that tho Crown law officers have ad-vised-him that settlers holding land under lcaso-in-pcrpctuity "are . entitled to the fee-simple of the land comprised in the lease, and they are consequently not entitled to the foe-simple oi what is not in the lease." There is thus a difference of opinion amongst lawyers as to, tho Southland lessee's claim to the coal on his section, and the lessee is alleged to contemplate a suit against the Lands Department. The Opposition papers are continuing, however,_to attack the Government, and will doubtless continue to do so. But it must bo remembered that they were attacking the Government, and expressing very positive opinions about the Taw of the matter'before they had even-be-come properly seized of the facts, and bofore they realised that the law of the matter is not a subject for decision by laymen or lay newspapers: It will puzzle tho public to understand just why these critics aro attacking Mr. Massey, impugning his candour, brushing aside the Grown Law Office, and clamouring for the performance of . that very act which they profess to regard as an injury to the; State. We all know,- of course, that they are anxious above all things to seek to damage the Government. But have they: no other purpose—no igoOd purpose? It is pretty clear that.thoy have not.

Hi as our ovening contemporary says, it is only concerned for "the public interest," what,is it, exactly, that it wants the Government to say or do! We ask the question in all because, •; although the Evening Post is a determined enemy of the freehold system, and lis naturally anxious to injure, that system wherevor it fancies it sees an' opportunity to do so, it in certainly not a virulent enemy of political reform. But the avowed anti-Reform journals have shown only an intense desiro that the Act of last session shall he shown to be productive of results which they havo said must be bad.. They wish, in short, that .the worst shall happen, and nothing could-cause them bitterer chagrin than to discover that the public in-

terest has been : conserved ,in last year's Act. That it has been conserved must, in tho presence of the Grown Law Office's opinion, bo believed until it has been clearly and finally established that tho contrary is the case. The anti r ßeform critics havo ' long : been in such >~ a state 'of ~;,( 'f,u)fy^,'('f,u)fy^,' that ihey could hardly be expected to see that they are making - ; themselves very absurd, and bringing all their, criticisms • and all ' their .methods under ; suspicion, by ; their desiro that there shall happen under the, Act precisely what they say "the public interest" forbids. They have also omitted, in their haste to attack the' Government, to reflect upon other facts. And ono fact is this: that if the Act does give to tho Southland lessee the minerals in his' lease (which is denied by the Peime Minister and the Crown Law Office), tho blame, if blamo wcro to bo distributed, would be shared by every member of both Houses. As tho Prime Minister says in. his statement to-day, the law will be administered according^to tho spirit of the Act and the intention of

Parliament. He is being treated by his excited enemies as if he deliberately designed to give x the Southland lessee a handsome * bar-

gain,' and: was fighting desperately to do' so, and to quote the Act as his authority!

, Tho enemies of political reform can rely upon it that, since they are incompetent to pronounce an opinion on' the law, they cannot pretend they are serving any public interest in abusing. Mit. Massey for saying the law is sound. The law is sound until it is proved to bo Unsound,, and it is open to anybody to test the law in the Courts who has a sufficient interest' in doing so. In the meantimo it is pretty evident that our anti-Reform friends who are so furiously reviling the Prime Minister, and so angrily_ clamouring that tho gift of tho minerals shall be made to the lessee, are not uninfluonced by a desire to make such a noise aßmay make the public forget their grievous blunder in. attacking tho Hon. James Allen's references to a New Zealand expeditionary force. Thoy will go on from blunder to blunder for a long time, no doubt.