LAND MONOPOLISTS AND SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1645, 2 December 1916, Page 2

LAND MONOPOLISTS AND SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

IF the (loveniment were really in earnest mid meant business in regard to (in* settlement of our relumed soldiers on the land, one of the very (irsl things they would do would be to see to it (hat in every ease the purchase-price asked by the land monopolists whose land is required for ibis purpose was entered as the taxable value of the laud on the tax roll, says the Wellington Times. Further, they would levy upon the land monopolists, as land monopolists, (heir full, fair share of the cost of defending the land on which they monopolise so much. Thai done, it is very certain that it wmdd no longer pay these gentry to hold so min-It of the land of New Zealand idle or half-idle, thereby blocking soldier-settlement and every other form of settlement, preventing the full development of the natural resources of (he Dominion, ami condemning the uneconomical expenditure, nay, more l , the tragic waste, of much of the best manpower of Hie nation far si way in Hie baekbloeks. Every fair-minded person will agree with onr contemporary's comments as affecting the selllsh, unpatriotic, money-grubbing laud shark, K is lime the National Government dealt with these gentry, and it would also pay Hie Slate handsomely to appoint auditors to overlook (heir “returns" for taxation purposes.