The Daily News WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4. POLITICAL DIFFERENCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 4 December 1907, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4. POLITICAL DIFFERENCES.

In the history of this Dominion tlievo was ;i lime-- it was the eve of a general election—when a section of the press, for party purposis, put forward the saggctinn that in this country there were ( no Con.-crvalivcs. "We are all Liberal* I in New Zealand,"' they willi emphasis 1 deiKired. As compared with the strict, rairow, wealthy-class-upholding, privilegem.'inlaining section of the population of older land*, there might have lieen a modicum of truth in the asseveration, and if there were it is truer now than in the days when it was first sought to persuade the people to tint conclusion. For the past sixteen yea's Xew Zealand has had in power an Al- | nriiistratioii popularly accepted as the 1 Liberal Government, and during the vlole of that period there has been a nr.rty. now i'caucd by Mr. Massey, op j posed to ilia.', Government, Popularly, too, they have been known as the Conservative parly, although it is not epiite clear that they have ever given that name to themselves. However this may be. the party led liy Mr. Massey have, with tolerable consistency, resisted the passage into law of nearly all the policy measures of the Liberal Governmeut. It is a fact that Mr. Massey and his friends have supported some measure* of a decidedly liberal nature. As has already been pointed out in lliese columns, however Mr Massey may strenuously denounce Socialism in every shape and form, and upon every occasion that seemed to him to be suitable, more than once he has agreed or consented to the voting of public money for the carrying out of works of a dc- », cidedly Socialistic tendency. These facts tend to throw doubt upon the political attitude of the Opposition, so that it may well be nsked-is .Mr. Massoy really Conservative in his feelinj and aspiration?

A help to the formation of an opinion as to ill'; di/tercnces sul;sistiiig between the Government iiml the Opposition may be gathered" from the worth that fell from ilr. Massey during au interview with a press reporter at the clone of the session, lie said:—''We must remember that by the Endowment Bill freehold tenure is made impossible on an area of something between seven million and nine million acres of Crown land, that a thirty-three years' lease takes the place of the lease in perpetuity on lauds to the settlers under the Lands for Settlement Act, that the option of the freehold has been extended to settlers holding Crown land under l.i.p. on terms which in many cases arc not just, and in others impossible, that (he option of the freehold has boon refused altogether to settlers holding lands under the J-ands for Settlement Act, and that a cunning device has been provided lor by legislation to compel man} land owners to increase their own taxen or run the risk of having their land values t-aken by the Government below their real values. These are matters for very serious consideration, and they show very clearly thai the sympathy of the present Administration is not with the people on the land."

.Mr. Massey notwithstanding, it is asserted here that —with the exception of the holder of freehold land of over C50,0(lll in value the interests of no occupier of land freehold or leasehold has in the slightest degree been tampered with by the legislation of the past session. Dad these interests been threatened in any degree the country from the Hlull to the North Cape would have been on tire with agitation. As a matter of fact, they have been improved. Of course, there is room, for further improvement, in directions we have already shown. But what about the people who do not possess any laud at all: -Mr. .Massey has no word of sympathy for them; in his eyes they do not count for anything. There are thousands of people with a little money in their pockets wandering about seel ing for a bit of land on which to settle and found a home; they are eager to join the ranks of the farmers; and no true fanner would turn his linger to prevent them. Nay, rather lie would be glad to assist. Mr. Massey has a word to say about the '"cunning device" by which it has been sought to constrain the man who owns over .•CaU.OOU worth of land—which for the most part lies unprovable to the State —to part with a portion so that the hungry may be fed, so that the landless may have a chance of securing a bit; but for the hungry lie has no word of any kind. Dis language seems to show j. sympathy for the owner of £50,000 worth of freehold estate who is now called upon to either pay or part, but the poor man who is anxious to pick up one of tile possible crumbs that may fall from the rich man's table is apparently unworthy of consideration. Mr. Misscy hopes to win the farmers' interest'to his support, but the farmers of this Dominion are too clear-sighted and too warm-hearted to deny to others the chance of attaining the same position they by the labour of their hands have wor.