THE BIG ESTATES AND WARDISM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2155, 22 May 1914, Page 6

THE BIG ESTATES AND WARDISM.

. The figures wo quoted a few days ago showing how the big estates increased in numbers in Mew Zealand during tho term of office of thc'W'Mtß Government seem to have greatly upset souK; of tlffi friends of sJik Joseph Ward. It is possible of course that they really believed that tho Ward Government was vigorously engaged in breaking up flic big estates. Certainly the Wardists were always talking about their achievements in this direction and -a great many neoplo are ready to swallow such talk without troubling to inquire info tho actual facts, Natotally, there* lore, they are shocked when they discover that the \Vard_ Govermi&nt s own official figures disclose 'that instead of any reduction isi tho number of big estates during the five and a half veftis' Premiership of Sik Joseph Ward, they increased in train* ber from MS to 10ft?. This fact canno i be disputed and the Wardists do not attempt to deny the accuracy of their own figures. Instead, they rely on keeping the public in ignorance of the facts and on their capacity to fool the electors with finesoiiadinft assertions utterly at. variance with tfeo irue position of things, If Siu JosBPE Wa.hd is so anxious to break up the large estates, how is it that (faring his term of office the large estates increased in number? If he is so anxious to promote closer settlement and provide la ml for the landless, why is it that he did not seize the opportunity to do so in ait ■effective way when he held office with a record majority at his back? When the public hear Sift Joseph W.wd and his friends repeating to-day their old cry for closer settlement and shouting abuse of the "squatters" they can judge of their sincerity by the figures we have emoted from the official records published under authority of tho Ward Government itself.