LAND NATIONALISATION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 586, 14 August 1909, Page 10

LAND NATIONALISATION.

one of.tlie misguided workers who have always believed that "land"- iVao a limited fixed quantity, and was incapable of.extension," 1. should just like to say how-much, wo nrp: all. indebted to Mr, Ashcroft for so olearly -pointing out to iis,in his long letter, that this.is not so, , His instance of the reclaimed -land in Wellington should contain the--germ of a. really ' capital idea ■ for a syndicate of land speculators. They might commence operations/ on the shores in Cook Strait by levelling the hills and /dumping them into ' tho sea, the largo, area of land bo obtained would' make "desirable building ilots" whereon to erect'-workers'' homes...-It would, . howevor, be absolutely necessary if t'hooompany was to bo a success that the freehold tenure should ho obtained first. In order to still further make it clear, he shows us how desorts can be made into - land by taking" water on to thorn, and how swamps call, bo converted into tho samo artiolo by taking tho water off them. I'or many, years

now I have been under the impression that both the swamp and tlio desert' contained land, and that it was by applying labour to them that they wero changed and made productive. This, of coure-e, only goes to show how easily the "thoughtless workers" aro misled, and that if wo would only use "common sense," wc should «ec clearly that they aro both made of something entirely different! . Then again, he shows us how land can bo extended by sucli a simple method as digging a well on it. This is what is oalled perpendicular' extension. Ho tells us ploughing deeply, too. is another moans of extending it. Small farmers, therefore, who. wish to increase tho area of their holdings should bear this in mind. Mr. Ashcroft'B letter is a very long one, but, Mr. Editor, I mu3t not trespass further on your space, but I should just like to point out to the workers how necessary it is to havo this land question placed clearly before us, and also how easily wo may get into a fog if wo try to think it out for ourselves.—-I am, etc., -,-■•/. A. WHITING. - Highbury; Farm, Marten. :