TWO VERY TALL STORIES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2327, 8 December 1914, Page 4

TWO VERY TALL STORIES

Opposition candidates have treated the electors to soine bold flights of imagination during the last few weeks, but in his speech at Masterton on Saturday Sir Joseph Waed, as .reported by-the Press Association, played ducks'and drakes with'facts in a style for which even the history of this campaign affords no parallel. According to the Press Association report, which we publish in another column, he said,, amongst other things: "Through the instrumentality of the Liberal Government 138,000 settlers were on the land in New Zealand to-day." The truth by comparison is dull and tame. Turning to the official records we find that the total number of occupied holdings of one acre and over in 1910-11 (the last year for which statistics arc available , ) was 73,876. This total relates to the full extent'bf occu-' pied land, including Crown pastoral leases. Thus what Sir Joseph Ward must have done in order • to get his figures is to take all the settlers in the country, including the owners of big estates, and the owners of villago orchards, , roughly doubled' the number <incl credit the lot to the "Liberal" Government as settlers placed upon the land through its' instrumentality ! Tho Leader of' the Opposition really claims that his party has put on the land during its term of office more settlers than there were actually on the land altogether, as shown by tho official records when hin party ,wcro thrown- out of office. , This is, a fairly tall order even for

a wizard of figures liko Sir Joseph Ward. But the Leader of the Opposition had more than one string to the imaginative bow which he drow at Masterton. Speaking of the purchase of land for settlement, he stated, according to the report referred to, that the Massey Government bad purchased 200,000 acres less , for settlement in two years than had the • "Liberal" Government in the same time. This was almost as fine an effort as doubling the actual number of settlers in the Dominion and crediting them all, real and imaginary, to the "Liberal" Party. The following table, dealing with -the purchase of land for settlement in the years indicated, gives the prosaic facts:— Ward Government, ■ Area Price, (acres). £ ' - 1909-10 42,805 260,793 ' 1910-11 14,399 158,796 • . 1911-12 44,417 381,483 Massey Government. 1912-13 52,008 428,041 1913-14 141,062 580,708 Instead of purchasing 200,000 acres less for settlement in two years than its predecessors, the Massey Government .purchased nearly twice as much land in two years as its predecessors did in three. During the' three years 1910, 1911, and 1912, the WARD Government purchased 101,651 acres, and in the two following years the Massey Government purchased 193,160 acres. It is true that the latter period includes the term of tho Mackenzie Government, but if half the .land purchased in 1912-13 is. credited to thaf Administration, the figures will read: Acres. Ward and , Maofcenzie Governments (3?. years) 127,700 Massey Government (1J years)... 167,111 It is only charitable to.assume that Sir Joseph Ward has been misunderstood. The assertions credited to him are really too absurd to have been seriously put forward, at a public meeting of intelligent electors.