LAND VALUES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 126, 18 August 1927, Page 15

LAND VALUES

TOO MUCH TALK SAYS MR. J. R. HAMILTON GOVERNMENT DEFENDED (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. As an antidote to the Labour laments during the Budget debate about the price of land, the soldier settlers and the producers’ prospects, Mr. J. R. Hamilton, member for Awarua, sturdily defended the position of the Government when the debate was resumed this afternoon. Mr. Hamilton said that a great deal had been heard during the debate concerning the price of land and producers’ difficulties. The difference between the primary and secondary producer was that the latter could pass on his increased costs, while the former could not. The farmer had to produce without any protection, except in the case of the wheat-growers in Canterbury. Anyone who knew anything about farming knew that the price of land depended on the price of products. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. H. E. Holland, had gone so far as to say that the Government had made a present of £1,000,000 To the landowners of the Dominion. Mr. J. A. Lee, Auckland East: That’s a moderate statement. “Sorry For tt.” Mr. Hamilton said that, they knew perfectly well that the price of land was very high when the soldiers came back, and they were sorry for it. But who would have been bold enough :o get up in the House at the time that the Government had bought the land, and say that they should not pay the rrice that they had paid? “A great deal too much had been said about land values,” declared Mr. Hamilton. “I think that as long as the present state of affairs continues, there is no man living who can put an accurate valuation on land, when the prices of produce are fluctuating as they are. All first mortgages are excellent value. I have no pity for most of the second, third and fourth mortgagees; it is simply unpaid balances of purchase money. There are thousands of people in this country who fell in worse than the soldiers did. The soldiers are getting revaluation, and the Government will see them through. But it is doing a great deal of harm, as far as people who would be prepared to lend money on rural securities are concerned, to say that land values are not what they used to be. Cutting Up Estates The farming community, Mr. Hamilton continued, was prepared to give the Government every credit for what it had done and was doing to help the producers. A great deal had been said about cutting up large estates, but he would point out that directly a big property was cut up, say into 100-acre blocks, £lO an acre was put on to its value, without the cost of surveying, roading or anything else. As soon as the Government bought a large estate and cut it up, increasing the value in this way, and it was found that people would not take up the land, there was a hue and cry from the Opposition that the Government had made a bad bargain. Meinbers should realise what they were up against when they advocated the cutting up of large properties.