LAND VALUES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 646, 25 October 1909, Page 3

LAND VALUES.

• as :^een slated again and'"'again in Parliament arid- out/of it-that' the*' increase in tho value ofjahd in New Zealand has.been caused by the Government railways; Allow me please to rcivo' tliat erroneous statement an emphatic- denial, and. I sincerely hope, that wo will not..seo .this; lying . repeated. Let me point out, the well-known • fact that when .the-value of laud in the Dominion .was at the lowest ebb there were over 1000. miles of (jpvernraent railways in New Zealand; and it .was not .until . the .big ■ steamship companies started to carry frozen beef/ mutton, and butter -that-.tluHand -began to rise- in value arid, the farmers to . prosper: The Minister for. - Agriculture in West, Australia acknowledged this in a 8m? s Peech, a short time, ago by .sayimj 'that ihojncreasß-in value.of land .-in 'Victoria and t New .Zealand.' was.. due V to- .the <" cow." Another statement by a Government supporter' »ws-to. the effect that there wcro 1,000,000 people in . New. Zealand and only 130,CD0 .'waro lreeholders, and drawing 'the contemptible in- , 870,000' people woro' landless''.orleaseholders. - Well,- a; day or two - ago tho -head' ot the Department in charge of the Parlia- • raontarv'electoral, rolls reported- that there ,wero MO.OOO: names .on .these,.rolls, and about, .Halt of.-those .were women, .leaving 0n1y.2, r i0,000 meniri'the colony over twenty-rino Tears of ace , proving: that' at. any rate) half ,of Iho men are in- possession,^, r landv- of - their. own.Jand '• not. serfs.tof..tho Government; also that,the lands ~ are i-.not tho -. monopoly ,of. a,:?few largo landowners. There;, are • riot pen enough ,in the • $$*?y S 2!! r '-Zealand to all - the lahd of : v h , o ' 'North .Island' alono\in'small areas, to .<Bayv.nothing of. both, islands.-. Neither, has tlib value, of land .during tlio last twenty,' years been.due to >tho. increase .'of population a? .that increase has ten very - small,- -many' cities in other countries having:increased■ their population_to a much greater extent than tho : L h °'V 0 /J? eW w Ze ste n f, ' After nearly ,twenty years- of .the Ward-Seddon legislation and au--' ministration their Government- lias been weighed in the balance and: found wanting." ihey have inaugurated an era of litigation, ,6tritc, stagnation, and a milleniunv for lawyers and the,legal profession.—l am, etc., ' . October IG, 1509., FREEHOLD..