The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1913. INFLATED VALUES OF LAND

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 August 1913, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1913. INFLATED VALUES OF LAND

Lkvin'.s need, according to our article of a few days hack, is farmers nut farm sellers. We nolice that the trouble is a niucli more aeule one in other parts of New Zealand, and notably in Taranaki province. At the sittings ol' the Supreme Court in Palmerston North, this week, several sidelights were cast upon this state of affairs and the transactions that led up to it. Land exchanges are at the root of Ihe trouble. Mi' Loughnan, one of the counsel appearing in the ease, remarked thai the country was dotted with monuments ol' land exchanges. 1 hey could lie seen all over the place, and a good many were to be lound in the Taranaki (listnet. !t was not an uncommon tiling to see apparently flourishing homesteads with nut a soul on them, and the yules swinging on their posts lie called in at one u! these places while in Taranaki, and found the house empty. W hen lie came to the next farm the owner said: "Oh, that is one of so and so s exchanges." His Honour replied that it was not surprising that the mental hospitals were so overcrowded. It was enough to strain the mental ei|uilibrium ol the fanner taking part in these linaneial transactions. During the hearing of the dispute before the court one witness remarked to Sir Robert Stout that he (witness) must have been mad to have anything to do with the exchange. ILis Honour promptly replied that lie considered the witness must have been mad seeing that he took over liabilities of -£'?•>(](), as il they were a L'> note. * Ills ILonoui went on to remark that land exchanges. as conducted iu New Zealand 1 at the present tune, were a worse form of gambling than the totalisator, and lie fully approved that legislation should be introduced to prevent such dealing.