The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1919. BURSTING OF LAND BOOMS.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 July 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1919. BURSTING OF LAND BOOMS.

With which is ximcorporated “The ‘_'l‘ai-ha.pe Post and Waimarino - News.” -

“I have seen three- land booms burst, and the present boom will share Ia like fate,” is what Sir Robert Stout stated publicly the other day. It is remark--able that the gambling instinct should have become so strong in some people that they can find no -ShadoW Of reason why -they should take Sir Robert Stout’~s words as a ‘warning. Many people, who are able to follow up the sequence of what must eventuate when unprecedented conditions become more in the natural order of things, have no doubt whatever about what. will happen to the present land boom. That some people have- successfully launched a boom there is no ‘doubt, because a higher price is being paid for land in New Zealand; than best farm land is being sold for 1‘ in England. The “boomers” will say} ‘that we are wrong in assuming ’any- i thing of the kind, but we have ever} before us the fact that farmers have ‘ depend upon'England‘.- for a, market l for the“ produce ofE‘.’their_ high-priced land, and as our methods of produc- ‘ ‘ tion are no'bet.fer, and labour costs are . no less, if as low,-than in England, it ;is stupid to assume that we can pro-_ iducc‘ at a less cost than English Vt‘-armers _can off cheaper land, that‘ lies alongside. 'thc—markct., while ours"has ,to }cross 12,000 miles of: ocean“ ‘We go further than Sir Robert Stout, ‘in saying that nothing. is likely to. =contribute to land nationalisation so 3much as this land-gambling. Courts ‘of law have disclosed that land, fbooms are not solely due to hard—‘ yheaded men, as they are called, buying for their own uses and purposes, after ihaving had experience of what land ’will produce. There are such things !as “bell-weathers” used for the puripose of leadingand decoying unthinking men into purchasing at abnormal, unprofitable prices . Everything in nature has its ebb and flow, and few things are less stable than production ‘and the price of primary products, Cold storage and insulated shipping have brought, us very near to ourimar-_ kets, but it. is impossible for them to ever put our products on an equal marketable footing with the products of British farms, or even-with Euro-Y pean farms. 'l‘he_re are many ,lru'n_'-'_l dreds of thousands of acres _’inNe\v Zcaland that Vwill give ‘returns quite equal to the £IOO an V acre. farms around Palmerston, and if really far-sec-ing ‘_lne‘n.'who have been bona fidc successful farmers, are, as it is said, buynig the £IOO an acre land, we can only attribute their actions to the willingness to pay more than land is worth to make sure of a home alongside a centre of population, in connection with which sentiment ‘has some influence. By paying unreasonably high prices for their land farmers are, for the time being, doing much toward increasing the cost of living, “toward the upkeep of high prices of their commodities. They argue, truthfully, that they cannot sell to profit their butter at less than eighteenpence -a pound, and while all other sources of supply are closed to Britain they will get the eighteenpence, but what. will happen when European production becomes normal again‘! Have they realised that the great grazing areas of Europe and Asia, connected by rail and water "with Britain, can‘ produce at sixpence a. Pound: and Gven at threepencc. Surely, 1 they are not so stupid as to think a pliant New Zcaland government can help them in such a case. New Zea‘land produce prices before the War‘ ‘Ewerc governed by the prices Euro-‘ ,pean sources could -profitably supply‘ at: and, let us make no foolish mis-' t_“_k°: they Will again be governed by the same iniliicnce as the effects of \\v’a,l' on. production wear away, with the ratification of peace ‘a return to ,W.°“'i“£-I food will commence which will tend to_lesscn socialist unrest, be. fiffsihiintolrl pricc.s.Will be Offering ymhmgsc fcommodltics which New J < ' armors now supply to 3, famine market at famine pr,ices_ pea. eepence a pound for b“tt°‘-' will think themselves little 70-93 than millionaries in obtaining l'9=}'d_ils’ from eiglrteenpence to two -"-‘ii-'llllTllfs’S 3 pound. and the army of producers will grow, old and new exerting every eifort to increase their production to profit by high prices

while they last...-ltl. is the old story of Supply andxdemand; New Zealand has enjoyed an Eippreciation of commodities owing to other -sources of supply being disastrously affected by being i_n, or too near the war zone; what will happen whenvthose sources are again supplying with ‘renewed vigour‘? Of course, Sir Robert Stout is stating what every capable thinker knows -must eventuate; sooner or later the boom 'will burst asjbooms which have preceded it haveburs-t. The time will come when governments will I find it necessary to‘ legislate against disparity of values in land products. I We are not so stupid as to eontendl that there can be, in this generation, ' an exact parity in. prices, but we do i suggest that the founding of a League of Nations -is a long step in that direction. The exploitation sin of commercialism is -at its apex; the money accumulated by exploiters, trusts and combines can no longer buy enough mercenary soldiers to shoot the masses down into subjection. The admission in the League of Nations of the ’universalisa.t.ion and unification of all labour within the League is the wedge that will split"; up com-" ‘pines and trusts when ever-‘ything else has failed. VVe find combine and trust representatives already at work, feverishly trying’ to cover th'e'League proposals rwith their s-kunkism'; trying to hide the greatest advance in human civilisation with their smelly, muddy iexudatirons. The League. of Nations 1“"i1]. operate towards a universal wage jbasis, so that the costs of primary [production will be the same, or thereLabouts, whether it be. in England, Russia, South America, or Australalsia. Events are crowding upon the world with lightening—like rapidity; lthe masses in all countries have proved a force that must make a very definite and deep mark upon the future, but is there one person in every thousand in New Zealand who has yet come to realise what is. ahead? and are not the majority of that one in a thousand‘ trying to shake off the thought that persistently haunts them? The height of man's ambition has been purchasable with'~'gold com'A'menda'ble and essential""'ambition has been over‘sha‘dow'ed‘ and injuréds'by greed;_ it is_ no 410n2,;~0if“ merit and ‘character "that ‘lad-c>.rn.s' the highest ‘pisses, ‘it is»? nloney,_ «and“the peoples of the s%.+ol}ld's‘r<‘s‘ revoltin'g_g;.gainst it. The"masscs:i‘ arc-,"'in a rough, crude, cruel way‘, dragging and forcing the peoples of the world back to sanity, and the wage etlualisation principle admitted into thc',League of Nations is fraught withall the possibilities of making that equalisation felt in New Zealand farms, bought at ridie_ulously high prices, ‘much earlier than anti—c'pa‘ted. It is well-known that prevailing high. prices during the next two or three years will induce men wanting land to purchase land from big landowners, at fabulous, unwarrantable prices. and"t’hut' thefiz-st big move towards normal "production in Europe, together with'the'rusll, to producing in countries‘ wherne‘ thousands of miles of luagrliiicenrt, land .'t__lav‘e,,__l_l__itherto contributed nothing to the '”world’s food needs, will signal the burst of the boom that is as sure to follow as night follows day. Why will people refuse to realise that present prosperity is not begat of u'ol‘nl§l conditions, that it is nothing more than a flash irom the War guns and fires in Europe, and that it will fade almost as rapidly as it came, new that the war is ended, and normality- is returning? We are not pessimistically arguing for the destruction of hope and real ambi’fioll, but we are urging people to think out for themselves what Sir Robert Stout has said about the nature of land booms. While it has been found that land from £IOO upwards cannot be farmed to profit in Britain, at the woi-ld’s firuarketing centre, how can land in New Zealand be worth the money that is being paid for it, for Pllrposcss of production? . With ‘the price of land ruling in this district a man can quickly become comparatively rich with the minimum expenditure of efi:'ort, and values could well increase by »another ten poundslan acre, without Causing: the producer any concern as to the margin «of profit. There is no denying the existence of the landl‘oom fever in ‘this country, and as there are ample precedents enabling us to approximately estimate the nrature, intensity and comprehensiveness of the curse which has invariably followed, we think some widespreifcl national effort should be made to prevent further dangerous developments. If the National Government had pursued the policy ‘oi’. more settlement and more production it has for past years been merely talking ‘about. the demand for land would nothave de veloped into a boom warranting :1 word of warning from Sir Robert Stout, who s't-ates, “I have seen three land bodms burst --and the present [boom will share a like fate.”