THE LAND QUESTION.

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 8, 20 April 1911, Page 17

THE LAND QUESTION.

Dear "Worker," —In a recent issue I read with interest tlie letter in your correspondence page signed "Crown Tenant." The purpose of the letter, I presume, is to shoAV that the poor mail i.e., the Worker, does not receive fair and equal treatment from the Government in the application of the Lands for Settlement Act. The Avrvter's contention that the Worker is discriminated against is perfectly true, but the most important economic fact in relation to the Act itself, the inherent fatal weakness in the scheme is totally ignored by the Avriter. I refer to the methods employed of compulsory purchase or voluntary acquisition of estates. The Government has been paying extortionate prices to large landOAvners for estates whose value is made by the public needs. At the initial stage of this scheme it may have been possible for the Government to acquire these holdings at fair prices, though it is both ethically and economically unsound, but it must be obvious to the most obtuse that it is utterly impossible for any Governmeiit to continue to acquire land at present upset prices. To persist in such policy spells ruination to the settler, especially to the working farmers who could not pay the rents that the CroAvn must exact from the tenants in consequence of the exorbitant prices paid for these estates. Nor Avill it avail to urge that prospectiA r e settlers are Avilling to take gamblers' chances on the risk, since the Avhole people's credit is involved and they are responsible for the sums borroAA 7 ed to acquire the land. Your readers are probably not aAA r are that one of the crying scandals of the Ward Government land policy is the rebates and remissions of rents to CroAA-n tenants. These "concessions," so miscalled by the Government press, are paid for by the landless Workers in toAvn and country. That there is maladministration of the Act by the Government may be true; that the Worker has Buckley's chance of obtaining a section to establish a home on is a fact. The ballot itself is a mammoth lottery in which speculators play roulette Avith the lucky marbles. The Government's entire land settlement policy is economic suicide* and carries Avithin itself the seeds of its own destruction. Before leaving for the Old Country that front-rank Conservative, Sir J. G. Ward, stated that it was impossible for the Government to continue to acquire estates at the prices demanded by the owners. A balance of £240.000 remained unexpended from last year's vote in consequence. Noav, Sir, in conclusion, I desire to indicate the remedy, simply to increase the ordinary land tax to an extent that will prevent the holding of large areas of unused land for speculative purposes. This will reduce land to a; fair price and enable the Worker to carve out a home for himself and family under healthy conditions. It will also relieve the congestion of the labour market in town and country. —I am, etc., VERITAS.