The Evening Standard AND POHANGINA GAZETTE. Guaranteed Largest Circulation In the District. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1897.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXII, Issue 6059, 23 June 1897, Page 2

The Evening Standard AND POHANGINA GAZETTE. Guaranteed Largest Circulation In the District. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1897.

A TRANSFORMATION. Ox® of the most remarkable facts about the present Ministry is the extraordinary transformation the Minister [of Lauds is undergoing m a direction quite contrary to what most people well acquainted, with him would expect. He has always fiven the public to understand that e was a bitter enemy of the land monopolist, the firm friend of the small settler, and a determined advocate of thoße who havo neither land nor money to assist them in the I struggle for existence. But he has become in the person of his sons a land monopolist of the first water, the small settler who requires a track to his holding finds that a carriage drive of easier grade than the beautiful one already in existence is necessary to the comfort and convenience of the Hon. W. J. M. Larnnch, and even tho humble rabbiter is not to be allowed to make a living when all other avocations fail him. Recently the Hon. J. G. "Ward appealed to the Minister for Lands to postpone the date of poisoning rabbits in Southland, as by trapping the pest could just as well bo kept down, and employment would be afforded to a number of men who would otherwise be enrolled in the ranks of the unemployed. But Dear Ward" gets no satisfaction, Tho Minister complained Hiat the small settlers farmed rabbits until tße season suitable for making use of them. Ho pointed out that it would j be as well to repeal the Rabbit Nuisance Act as to stop poisoning, and if that were done a large number of people would sell out and leave the colony, and the Minister of Lands would not own an acre of land more than lie could help. He says . he was-near.'y ruined uu a farm he had to dispose of at a heavy loss by rabbits—but lie does not say how tho purchaser fared—and therefore has no intention of assisting to put anyone else in such a position.