The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1911. THE GREAT DRAWBACK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 77, 21 September 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1911. THE GREAT DRAWBACK.

Til order to reach maturity an a country j of importance. Xew Zealand land must be adequately settled and its fertility preserved I>y calling a halt in the destruction of timlicr. The. relation between the two is .1 very vital one, but unfortunately not generally understood. Kveryone, however, agrees on two points in relation to land—(l) That a few people hold too much land, and that the majority are landless; and (2) that land is too dear. The Government, with more or less reason,, is accused of dila- \ toriness in opening up lands for settlement, and the Government makes out a very good ease for itself when it points out that when it desires to acquire large estates for cutting up the price is frequently so high that it is unable to afford 'the luxury. It is very human for the big landholder to "see the Go: vernment coming," so to speak, and to regard it as fair game for exploitation, and the demand for exorbitant prices. The Government, therefore, is asked why it doesn't purchase more land, but if it buys at the exorbitant prices demanded in so many cases it is accused of spending the people's money foolishly. The position in New Zealand is becoming acute. There is little stability of settlement, everybody wants to quit or. exchange, the heavily-cropped or fed land is losing its life (which in treeless parts may not come back again) and the dcn'i'ahd for virgin soil must grow. A deputation waited on the Prime Minister the other day. and it mentioned, among other things, that eleven people in Marlborough owned 305,000 acres, an average 'ojf 31,000 acres per owner. In other words, eleven people are preventing several thousands of settlers from adding to the prosperity of the country, and in closely cultivating land that is carrying a few head of stock per hundred acres. The deputation want the Hillersden estate cut up. and quote, in support, the; fact that the cutting up of other Marlborough big estates has been a pronounced success, the tenants of Government land who bad got in for fls or Ss rental having been able to get as much as £ls per acre goodwill. Chopping and changing, however, has been one of the curses of Xew Zealand, but it is not the point we are concerned with just now. The Premier's reply to the deputation was to the effect that the. Government wanted to settle everybody on the land who wanted to settle, but the prices asked for big estates were s« high that it would be impossible in purchasing to do what was fair and reasonable to Crown tenants. The Government had considered, for instance, that such-and-such a price was a handsome one for such-and-such an estate, but it unaccountably jumped up £lO an acre when it was known the ■Government was angling for it. "Xo doubt," said the Premier, "a change of system is necessary to meet this difficulty. It is perfectly well known—every lawyer in the \try knows what has been going on everything conceivable that can - ' V to prevent the Government from •g estates has been done under

f the advice of wpll-known lawyers with a" view to stopping the successful operations of the Land Act. We altered the system to try and get over that difficulty, and we will have to alter the system again—there is no doubt about it." The Premier also made pointed reference to the absentee landlord, who stayed in England and drew £.10,000 a year as his portion of a great estate, which could not be bought except at such exorbitant rates as to preclude the possibility of potential small lessees or owners making a "do" of it. The Government is face to face with the .fact that all interests are ranked against it in the effort to extract the highest possible price. The Premier speaking bare facts when he said that the Government never got an offer at a fair price. The little gleam of hope thrown out by th« Premier was that "something would have to be done." What can be done to make land a reasonable price has not been stated by any responsible person. The fact that rural lands in Sew Zealand arc frequently higher priced than better rural land close to the greatest markets of the' world shows how inflated- an idea we have of land values. Either land settlement must be retarded and the country impoverished or land prices in city, town and country must fall. But the Government has not yet offered any solution of a condition that becomes yearly more critical.