The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1911. LAND AGENTS AND LICENSES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 8, 4 July 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1911. LAND AGENTS AND LICENSES.

The emoluments offering make the profession of a land agent a particularly attractive one. The agent may in a day or so earn by skill, energy or chance a larger sum than he could earn with his hands in many months/ He is not always called on to exercise great mental power. His business is to achieve a sale (or an exchange) and his commission is generally remarkably handsome for the duties he performs. We will admit he is necessary, but hold that New Zealand is deluged with ■ land . agents because anybody, whether he-has a standing in the community or not, may become one without hindrance from anybody. He requires no stock-in-trade, and he requires no capital to enter into the business. He may do it on the street corner; he may make a more or less precarious living by being "jackal" to a reputable and solid firm. A man cannot become an auctioneer without paying a £4O license. It is as necessary that land agents should be licensed as auctioneers. The reputable land agents who are trusted by the community would welcome the imposition of a license that would keep the profession more select and which would make it necessary for the "jackal* to get work. The enormous number of land agents is a menace to the country, for in the perpetual struggle for commissions, prices of land become fictitious, many people are (to put it mildly) disappointed, and the community stands the racket. The system of "swapping" could not be a greater boon to the land agent if he had ■■ invented it himself, and although, of course, honorable and trusted firms of standing do this class of business it specially appeals to the men of straw who are keen to "make a rise." There is no profession in New Zealand so remarkably crowded as thai of land agency, and none that needs weeding out so much. | We believe that the imposition of a heavy license fee would do much to thin the ranks, leaving only the agents who are trustworthy, financial and permanently located. The public has no quarrel with the negotiator who carries on a legitimate business and earns good repute, but it certainly has some right to demand that the profession shall be made more select by the imposition of a license fee at least as large as that paid by an auctioneer.