THE HAURAKI TRANSACTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 20 October 1913, Page 4

THE HAURAKI TRANSACTION.

The Opposition is entitled to every bit of satisfaction it has derived from the unseemly protest made ~again&t the granting of the right of acquiring the freehold, to Hauraki settlers. No notice would probably have been taken of the matter had it not been that the member for he Thames who proferred the politics of Government to those of the Opposition, was interested in one of the Hauraki leases. So far as principle is concerned, there is absolutely none at stake. The settlers of the Hauraki are in the that their land is of very little value to either the tSato or themselves. The concession of the freehold will enable them to finance more satisfactorily than they would have been able to do under the leasehold. It will be argued—it has already been argued—that if the right of freehold is granted tof Hauraki settlers', it should be grafted to those holding a similar tenure in other parts of the Dominion. Precisely. The Government would offer no objection, provided that the land was of si ofiar quality. But it is not. And it is' just" hero that the Opposition tua\es a huge mistake.