A MINISTER'S DILEMMA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 9, 21 December 1906, Page 3

A MINISTER'S DILEMMA.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —One wearies of constant iteration ; of constant carp and exposure of contra —natural fallacies. It is supposed that each one of us has, and cherishes, " sentiments," which, however undesirable they may may appear to their opponents, no cheerless loquacity will change. And I appeal in particular to my dear friend of Mokauiti, whose identity I will disguise under the pseudonyn of " Leasehold Smiler," to acquit me of personal caption, or vindictive cruelty, when I again take one of his pets across my knee to administer wholesale correction. I love my friend with too sincere an affection, and admire his pertinacity in adhering to his vague sailing directions, too honourably, to cause him or the said pet more pain than is absolutely needful. Also, I believe him to be truly faithful to the conviction that "leasehold " will alone prevent the aggregation of large estates. This preamble has its initiative in the remarkable admission of the Hon. Mr Millar, in his speech on the 17th at Ellerslie, in which he said : —" If they granted the right to the freehold, there was no known law to prevent the aggregation of large estates." Good Lord ! To what end have these highly paid experts been appointed but to invent machinery if it does not exist! It is too impertinent to reply " If you do not know of any law, and cannot propose one, without trenching on the ' sentiments ' of equally worthy citizens to yourself, the "time. has arrived that you acquired the knowledge, or, permitted others to try ! " If such a simple connundrum requires for its solution the wresting from, and interfering with the natural aspirations of the hard toiler to become a homesteader in fee simple, we have come to an impasse too pitiful for public admission, and we are within our rights to enquire : If you cannot solve this infantile puzzle, how can you be entrusted with those of greater importapge? And "it is just this incapacity which makes of our expensive Parliaments a museum of rare twaddle, ancient contention, and choice incompetence ! It is not my function to educate men who are paid experts' wages to teach others. Nevertheless, chum " Leasehold Smiler," and your

prodigies (whom I truly respect for the positions they occupy) assure me a substantial bonus, and I wiil guarantee to set out a solution in less than the length of this letter, which shall interfere with no man's " sentiments," and yet prevent " the aggregation of large estates." —I am, etc., W.B.