A CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 128, 28 February 1928, Page 10

A CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

MR. RANSOM REPLIES TO HON. A. D. McLEOD Sir, —In two different parts of Saturday’s Dominion the lion. A D. McLeod challenges mo to allow him to publish the price at which I offered my property to tlie Government for soldier settlement, together with the Government valuation of the property at the tiuie of the offer. If it will bo any gratification to the lion. Minister, or any assistance to the party Hint ho represents, he is ut perfect liberty to publish this information, or any other of my private affairs, that he considers would advantage his Government. All that I ask is that at the same time he makes public the price paid by the Government for the Glengarry block, together with Ihe Government valuation of that block at the time of the purchase. The Glengarry block is about two miles from the property that I offered, and not so suitable for closer settlement. The land that 1 offered is situated about three miles from Dannevirke on Laws Road, and is a highly improved farm suitable for dairying. It consists of 655 acres. The offer was made about 1920 during the time that the late D. If. Guthrie was Minister of Lands. The price at which I offered the property was about £4O per acre (I have not the correspondence before me at the time of writing). I subsequently in 1922, “during the slump period,sold 254 acres of the same block at £52 10s. per acre, and the purchaser is well satis, tied with, his bargain. Tho balance of ■lOl acres 1 still own, and consider it very good holding at the. amount tc. maining of the price at which 1 offered it to the Government. It is characteristic of the Hon. Alin ister, when he finds himself confronted with arguments that he cannot answer, to hide behind a smoke screen of insinuation, and attack his opponent in respect to his private affairs, a practice that very few would ever contemplate taking advantage of. If tlie Minister of Lands believed that my actions were not entirely honourable, then why not attack me from his place in the House? During the five years I have been there I have given him ample opportunity of doing so. I do not fear full disclosure of ths facts; they cannot hurt me, but veiled insinuations ai;e calculated to do so. The fact of the matter is the Alinister .■ ids has absolutely failed to carry out tho slogan of tho Government at election time, which was “Settlement. Alore Settlement, and Still Moro Settlement." Take his own purchase of the Te Wera estates of about 10,000 acres for the sum ot £64,000. Why were there no applications for this land when it was offered tor closer settlement? The Alinister admits the land hunger that exists. Thon what explanation has he to offer why this land was shunned by all those desirous of' going on the land? He must have known something when he told the House, “I believe that the greatest blessing that can come io this country is to conserve that urea as a bush area.”

At a time when there are thousands of would-be settlers waiting for an opportunity to go on the land, does the Minister dare to suggest, that it was good business to pay £64,600 lor a block of land that he considers should bo conserved as a bush area; why not conserve some of our Crown lands, and purchase blocks for settlement that can bo devoted to intensive farming? The Minister admits there are 9000 less people working on Hie land to-day than there were last census. Is it any wonder we have unemployment rife amongst us with tho . GoveriimenJ policy of introducing 10,000 immigrants a year, and absolutely no conception of the manner in which those immigrants, and our own sons, can be made* producers of national wealth? Thanking you for the insertion of above,—l am, etc., F. A. RANSOM. Dannevirke, February 25.