THE LAND QUESTION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1409, 9 April 1912, Page 6

THE LAND QUESTION.

Sir,—The remarks nindo by the president of the Chamber of Commerce concerning tlie need for increased production anil closer settlement of the land aro well timed. There is 110 doubt this is rapidly becoming 110 country for young people) owing to the impossibility of being able to get land at anything like a reasonable figure. Tho "sc|uatoeraey"—so much denounced on all sides—aro by 110 means the only offenders. All have sinned, from tho speculator in his quar-ter-acre section to the squatter with his 30,000 ncro run. We are all sharers 111 the shameful .system of public spoliation —in tho unearned increment. It" is needless to point out here tho evil results ot land monopoly. It means that the mail who works the land for a living is helping often threo families besides bis own, as each man through whose hands the land passes, puts 011 his -C'fj or .£lO per acre profit, without adding anything to its productive value. It means that large areas of land on which a happy and prosperous people might settle, _to tlie benefit of everybody, are running Sheep, with a couple of bachelors living 111 a "whare" to tend them. Its evil effects are seen in the extortionate rents exacted from shopkeepers and others whose business compels them to livo 011 a mam thoroughfare. In tho suburbs of Wellington the effects of land monopoly are seen in lrngo areas ofland, held _by speculators for ridiculous prices, which should bo affording room and for the people of the town. What is tlie use then, when tho vicious system permeates every stratum of society, from the working man who dabbles in his tiny section to the Judge on the Bench, who openly or secretly speculates in thousands of acres, in denouncing the squatters as though they wero the only offenders? I-et lis face the facts, and look them squarely in the face. Let 11s be prepared ourselves to eschew this evil thing—this spoliation of the nation'; assets—this system of obtaining something for nothing. Then, with clean hands, we may approach the squatters fearlessly and ask for justice—l am, etc., X.' isgaio, March 27.