Mr. COATES'S FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Evening Post, Issue 51, 2 March 1931, Page 8

Mr. COATES'S FIVE-YEAR PLAN

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Mr.' Coates's idea, that the settling of people on the land as farmers will increase the aggregate national wealth i» au old one and a true one, but it all depends on how these people are settled as to whether any one of them' benefits \>y this inn-ease in the common.fund. It is the method that counts. Hie statement that increased production is the key to greater national wealth is quite correct, but that it will, as he says, improve the condition of the people is another matter, and by reminding us of Great Britain having to spend £73,000,000 on unemployment, he immediately knocks over his "Castle in Spain." , , If increased production and national wealth does away with' unemployment, then Great Britain should have less unemployed than New Zealand. But the fact is that Great Britain, with her incalculable wealth and production, is in a ■worse state of unemployment than we are. That the (treat wealth is there, there is no doubt, but evidently it it not getting as far as the general public- who create it, otherwise there would be no hunger and discontent. The true remedy lies in releasing land, the source of all wealth; from the grip of high rent and ■ speculative values, and securing to the nation the community created values, at the_ "game time 'removing from trade the restrictions which it has to bear at the present moment. The best Mr. Coatcs's scheme can do is to improve the lot of the few who will benefit by State assistance at the expense ofi the many.—l am, etc., FACTS.