" MEN OF A MILLION ACRES."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12392, 13 December 1909, Page 4

" MEN OF A MILLION ACRES."

Following our exposure of the " Herald's ". peculiar'standard of journalistic honesty, which, as we showed on Saturday Mast, goes the length of founding a false allegation on a wilfully misleading partial quotation, it will hot be inappropriate to devote, a few more lines to showing liow grossly arid deliberately tho " Herald" sets itself to " gull" the. public. In a recent issue "the"" Her-

aid " published a leaderette under the

beading "Men of a Million Acres." The obvious purpose of this article, as was pointedly indicated by the heading, was to lead its readers to believe that there are in New Zealand many men individually owning a million acres each. To lend a semblance of truth to the false suggestion, the " Herald " quoted from the official Year Book a series of figures' incorporated in statements plainly intended to add weight to the inference which it sought to convey. Here is the catalogue just as it appeared in the leading columns of our contemporary : In Auckland Provincial District 50 persons hold a million acres. In Hawke's Bay 26 persons hold just short of a million acres. In Wellington Province 41 persons own 860,000 acres. In Marlborough 25 persons own • a million and a half acres. In Nelson 25 persons own a million acres. In Canterbury 23 persons own over two million acres. In Otago 32 persons own over three million acres. In Southland 23 persons own over a million acres. We ask our readers to note particularly the frequency with which the word " own " is used. It may be, of course, that the "' Herald" regards " hold" and " own" as convertible terms, but we can scarcely credit that the word was used inadvertently or without set purpose. There can be no doubt J that all these persons ennumerated by j the " Herald" were intended to be. accepted by the. readers of the " Her-] aid" as land monopolists. But what aro the facts? The figures quoted include Crown pastoral leases. A comparison of the table from which the figures are taken with that appearing cm page 472 of the Year Book shows that the greater number of the lnrge holdings are pastoral runs with leasss not exceeding 21 years! Page 471 gives 84 j holdings of over 50,000 acres aggre- j gating 5,409,298 acies. Page 472 shows \ that there are 13 freehold holdings; over 50,000 acres, aggregating 1,050,242 , acres. Therefore, 7,000,000 acres out of j ths 8,000,000 acres aro pastoral leases; owned by the State! What, then, be- J comes of the sinister suggestion em- [ bodisd in the word " own " with which ! the '' Herald " so unblushingly embel- 1 lishes its alleged quotation from the' Year Book? And what becomes of all these " men of a million acres? " The majority of them are merely State tenants'. The land they "hold" but do not " own " is the property of the greatest monopolist of all, the " boss " landlord—the State.