THE REAGGREGATION OF LAND

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1695, 11 March 1913, Page 4

THE REAGGREGATION OF LAND

It has become a habit with a certain class of advocates' of the leasehold form of tenure to talk very loudly about "the evil of the rcaggrcgation of land" which is alleged to be going on, It is, of course, a part of the policy pursued by the leaseholders in their campaign against the freehold, and as such must be taken for what it is worth. The difficulty for the impartial student of the troublesome land question is to arrive at any confident conclusion as to what the worth of the contention really does amount to. For the most, part those who make the greatest noise about the of land are strangely backward in producing direct evidence in support of their general assertions. Nobody, we think, has any doubt at all that here and there cases could be quoted of a-settlor absorbing his neighbour's holding. This sort of thing is bound to happen, and is not infrequently a very good thing both for the man who. sells his land ancl for the country. The history of land settlement in New Zealand affords evidence of many eases in which Crown holdings have been subdivided in areas too small for profitable occupation. In-stances-could be quoted, we have no doubt, where, owing to the poorness of the land or its unsuitablencss for working as a separate holding, Land Boards have permitted the lumping together of sections or have arranged a moro liberal subdivision to meet the needs of the occasion. But what is suggested by those who talk and write about reaggrcgation is that a systematic effort is being made to secure small freeholds adjoining one another with the object of converting them into one largo holding, with the consequential squeezing out of the small settlers. If this is going on to any extent, and with small holdings each capable of supporting a settler and his family, it is an undesirable, and may be made an evil, thing. But where is the proof that, it is going on on anything like the scale suggested, or even going on at nil i Tli.- tendency in most. purU j s in entirely the opposite direction,

All over the country the large landowners are to be foui':l subdividing their estates and offering them to the land-seekers. The Minister for Lands might have a return prepared showing how many thousands of acres of land have been put on the market in this way during the past two or three years. ,lt would, we imagine, throw into insignificance any reliable statistics that might be adduced 011 the subject of reaggregation.