The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1906. THE LAND BILL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3720, 13 October 1906, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1906. THE LAND BILL.

The “Evening Post,” a strong leasehold advocate, which has been patting the Government approvingly on the back over the Eand Bill, is now commencing to deal out sledge hammer blows of another kind. In a recent editorial it says: “ Criticism of the Eand Bill has ceased for the present to possess any interest, and criticism of the Government must now take the first Iplace in the public mind,” And then it suras up the position thus: “ Unflinching courage before the guns began to shoot a month ago, a nervous glancing backward over their shoulders for some convenient retreat on Tuesday last, an abject abandonment of the whole position and precipitate flight, such has been the order in which the symptoms have developed. The pretext of the Exhibition is, of course, transparent in its flimsiness. The labour of attending the opening ceremonies will not be so serious as to incapacitate Ministers and members from any further work this year, and a week’s or a fortnight’s adjournment would have been ample for the purpose if they had really been actuated by an earnest desire to accomplish the business for which they have been elected, appointed and paid. In the the hands of a strong Ministry, the necessary adjournment for the

Exhibition would have proved rather a lever for the accomplishment! of its designs than an obstacle ; but the action of Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues spells ab--1 ject weakness. ‘ I claim we shall be able to stand fairly well to our guns as politicians,’ said the Minister foi Lands in the financial debate. I tell the hon. gentleman honestly, and not in any political sense, that we are going to stand by our guns, and will, if necessary, go down with them, and in the twinkling of an e\ r e. We are not going to float about for half a century hanging to the Treasitry benches whilst the people are not able to make out what our land policy is,’ The course which Ministers have taken is not likely to give them such public confidence as will enable them to hang on for the half-century mentioned by Mr McNab. And what more deplorable contrast could be imagined than that between these brave words and the craven performance announced, without apparently even a consultation of the parly in caucus ? A thousand- fold better than such spineless tactics would have been a brave struggle, a defeat and a dissolution. But this would have required strength, and the country will in future look elsewhere than on the Treasury benches for the strength which the work of the government demands,”