LAND AGGREGATION

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1928, Page 3

LAND AGGREGATION

•LABOUR LEADER’S STATEMENT, s (By Telegraph—PerlPross Association.) i 1 < - WHANGAREI, Fel>. 19. i '"“Tlie greater part of Mr H. E. H‘>l- - speech in the Y.-u.C.A. Ha on Saturday evening was devoted to the , land problem in its four mam phasesaggregation, mortgages, interest, and j transfers. ’ The speaker first analysed the con- , tention that there was no aggregation, and said that on 43,500,000 acres oi rural lands in New Zealand there weie only 85 731 land-holders out ot popula- : tiou of nearly one and a-half millions. , Of these 6,978 held nearly 30 mill ion acres, and 78,354 had less than 14 million acres. These ngures included big pastoral leases, but wcit ' .said to Ire sufficient evidence of figgrefrom the point of view of the, area If values were considered tle comparison striking. There were 51,506 Rind tax-payers with properties valued at £233.750,000 Tim-tv-eight persons held land at the value „f over £25,000 each. 2080 had land worth £30,000, 1944 held £20,000 v oi th and tens of thousands had not even £IOOO worth. The country was destined to be one of small holdings with intensive cultivation, and with all the tesources of science being '"'‘rnght o increase production. Tbe Labour Party proposed to acquire and cut up the large estates, and to graduate the land tax far more steeply than at present, or than in tlic 16 years of Reform Government. Registered mortgages had r increased from 28.7 per cent to 47 per cent of the total capital value of property. This was an increase in Indebtedness of nearly 200 per cent as against a capital increase of 80 per ce.it7Lrtlie period under review, more than half the area of New Zealand had been transferred. Many of these transactions were necessary and inevitable, hut an immense proportion were caused through the mortgagee and the speculator. Mr Holland went on to deal with

wages in relation to farmers’ produce, to show that higher wages meant a wider market for the primary producers both at home and abroad. Most of the legislation introduced by the Reform Government to assist the farmer had been a dead letter.