THE PASSING OF THE FREEHOLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 33, 7 June 1907, Page 3

THE PASSING OF THE FREEHOLD.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your correspondent, "W.T. M.," when writing his article on "The Passing of the Freehold," had evidently been reading the pages of that charming book, " Bellamy's, Looking Backward," and his ideas seem just as visionary and impractical. What does it matter what title the descendants of the old British barons possess to their estates ! Have they not made Britain a success and are we not proud of being their kinsmen ? Again, he says : " Had this country never sold an acre of its land, town or country, the State income, at five per cent., on the unimproved value, would now amount to £6,500,000, etc., etc." Alas, there is always a big IF. Perhaps if Eve had not partaken of the first apple things might have been altogether different! Does anybody imagine that if Sir Joseph Ward could, by a'stroke of the pen, make every acre in New Zealand State property, and divide things up equally all round, that it would materially hasten the millenium. There would still remain such uncomfortable facts as the Law of Supply and Demand;'the Necessity for Defence, etc. Take the case of a young New Zealander; beginning life as a farmer, is he, for the sake of hastening the millenium, to accept a lease for twenty-one or for sixty-six years, when he can do so much better with a freehold? He has to buy from,"and sell to merchants and traders who are only interested in feathering their own nests, and who would only laugh at his hopes. If all the civilized nations of the earth were to agree to simultaneously nationalize their lands, perhaps it might work an improvement, but even then the dawn of the millenium would be distant. —I am, etc., A.M.T. Ohura, 30/5/07-