AWAY WITH LAND MONOPOLY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43091, 11 May 1907, Page 4

AWAY WITH LAND MONOPOLY.

The aggregation of large estates, which most people agree is undesirable in a country like New Zealand, where land is limited in area;, was dealt with by Dr. Findlay during a recent speech at; Oamaru, taking Hawke’s Day as a tvpical instance. He quoted from a return dated 1903, the last reliable return he could get, though he was having one compiled up to date showing that the list of proprietors who; owned more than 10,000 acres was nearly 200. They owned! 5,000,000 acres —that was, to 1 say, about 7800 square miles of good country in Hawke’s Bay. Sixty persons held 1,200,250 acres—an average of 20,500 acres eachI—all, 1 —all, or nearly ail, open to railway and well roaded. This land, properly subdivided, would settle 4200 settlers. The enemy of the small settler . to-day, ~ said Dr. Findlay, was the man . who ■ held his 50,000 and! 400,000 a'creis with an iron hand for the purpose of sheep runs, who, if they had any philanthropy and patriotism l , would soon be covered with smiling, prosperous homes. In Taranaki the population, averaged ( 13 persons per square mile, whereas in Hawke’s Bay, with much; better land, the average was only 9 persons. These figures surely "speak with eloquence of the drag that land monopoly is upon the wheels of progress .