TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9548, 21 July 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

AMAZING ANTAGONISM. Considering that the Government can offer Dreadnoughts without consulting Parliament, can suspend Parliament to allow Sir Joseph Ward to go to England, and can pass any Finance Bill required without any difficulty, does anybody believe, says the Auckland "Heraid," they could not have arranged for the empl yment of private surveyors if th-.re had been the slightest administrative desire to push on land settlement? After the appointment of Mr Carroll as Acting-Prime Minister and of Mr Buddo as Acting-Minister of Lands, it is hardly necessary to say that the amazing antagonism of the Government to a sound settlement policy is more pronounced than ever.

NATIVE LAND. The settlement of the native land in the North island would enormously increase the productive power of the Dominion, and even though the North Island would benefit to a greater extent than the South, it wculd mean a great deal for this part of New Zealand, says the Christchurch "News.'" The country prospers as a whole, and not in sections. The development and expansion of the primary industries in the North Island would open new markets for South Island manufactures, and we could not fail to share in the general prosperity. Hitherto the Government have shown a reluctance to tackle this great question but the requirements of settlement render it imperative that they find a method of utilising the native lands without further delay, and the sooner they realise it the better.