The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 28th, 1925. A SOCIALISTIC POLICY.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 April 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 28th, 1925. A SOCIALISTIC POLICY.

The land policy of the Labor Party is sure to receive a good deal of attention this year. Already it is being expounded from many platforms, and as a result there is considerable criticism of the brand of socialism indicated. The Auckland “Herald” makes some very pointed remarks wherein it goes oil to sav that the report’ on Labour s land policy as presented to the late conference at Wellington is by no means a full statement of the case. It deal> at some length with valuations, speaks cheerfu|]y of purchasing land for national bond?, and soothingly cf a tenure

which is to be “permanent”, and of non-illterforeneo with the ‘‘right of inheritance.” All this is rather beside the point. Labour's land policy is based oil its general policy, which summed up in high-sounding word.-. “The socialisation of the means of production, distribution ami exchange,’' The words used in the planks of the platform relating to land are more ambiguous. but they mean the same tiling; i hey are sugar-', on tod, but the pill is there. Uricllv put. the vital points are that- land tenure is to be based on “occupancy and use” ; that there is to be a State valuation of all privatelyowned land, such valuation to remain oil record as the measure of the land-own-ers’ interest in the land, that private-Iv-owned land shall not lie iy:ld or transferred except la the State; and that the owner sha.ll have the I ‘eight’’ to -urreuder bis land at tin- fixed valuation. Thus tin- farmer is to have no freehold interest in bis land. 110 mav l-e left in occupation a uselul toiler, but "ben in the emir.so <4 years lie seeks t i gather the fruits of bis labour, he "ill find they me sirict!v limited to the valuation piae-ed on I:is land bv an Asse>-um-ni t ourt or Valuation Appeal Board. At that I rice the Stale "ill buy for “bonds' - which may nr m:v- not be worth their face value, which may or may not hear current rates oi interest, and the farmer is to be forbidden the alternative of finding a belter buyer. It is. in | lain language, the. death-blow to freehold!ng and the beginning of Socialism. Perhaps, concludes the Aueklaml critic, this kind of “policy” may have a certain popularity in towns among people who know nothing of farming nor oi the difiltulties ol lariner.«, but in the country constituencies Labour candidates "ill find the voters much hotter informed and not easily induced to swallow the Socialist m tram which makes up the Labour Party’s land policy. To this wo may add that it is just as well for electors to keep this essential [.lank of the Labor policy in mind, and study out the effect of it if Labor ho given the opportunity to rule the destinies oi No" Zealand. A party pledged to such n policy attempting to enforce it would at once (apart from the injury and loss inflicted on land owners) ruin the national credit outside the Dominion, and that lost, the country would be in a poor way to carry on. Without security of tenure and the fear of the loss of freehold rights, the credit of the country would speedily tumble down, and financially tbo Dominion would be in a topsv turvy state. The prospect I 1 so alarming that in its socialistic land policy alone the electors of New /calami should have no hesitation in rejecting the. plea of the Labour party for a term in .flic e. The privilege would load to national, financial disaster.