THE LAND QUESTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 810, 10 February 1910, Page 2

THE LAND QUESTION.

Mr Guv H. Sciiokfikij), a New Zealand journalist now in Eoudon has published a book entitled ‘ ‘ New Zealand in Evolution.” Dealing with the land question, the author shows the similarity between the problems now being faced in Britain and those which inspired the advanced legislation brought in by the Liberal Government of New Zealand. In 1891, he says, twothirds of New Zealand was freehold property, and two-thirds of the whole area of freehold was in possession of only 2254 individuals. Upwards of one million acres were held by 50 absentee landlords. Of the 20,000,000 acres still unalienated, the vast majority was of inferior quality, including all the mountain fastnesses. In New Zealand, in 1891, the graduated land taxes were introduced with the object of bursting up large estates, while exempting improvements from taxation. The exemptions and deductions have since been so adjusted that to-day quite one-sixth of the 174,000 persons who possess land in New Zealand have to pay taxes. The graduated tax has, in fact, bc«*n adjusted and readjusted in its incidence so as to discourage the large holdings and encourage the small, and to discourage severely the absentee landlord, “There has been a steady movement towards closer settlement,” Mr Scholefield declares. “ Smaller farms and more of them ; smaller flocks and more of them ; smaller subdivisions and more people. Seventy-nine per cent, of the New Zealand farms to-day are not more than 320 acres in extent, yet the

private wealth of a million people ( is more than ,£350,000,000. New j Zealand has furnished the model 1 for many of the laud laws of sister States. It has been copied in its most radical moods by States which have been confronted with the same problems. To-day it is being initiated by the Mother Count, y of the Empire. But the last testimony to the good faith of the New Zealand land system’s purpose and the efficiency of its operation is the general approval of both parlies in politics, the rapid increase ol primary production, and the overwhelming fact that in New Zealand farming is regarded as a fit and proper occupation for men of birth and education.”