The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1911. THE BIG PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 125, 17 November 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1911. THE BIG PROBLEM.

Academic discussions on the land problem are common enough in these moments of political advertising, and the amount of advice that is being tendered to the Government in regard to it would easily outbulk the famous 12y 2 lbs of the Land Commission report. A useful contribution to the discussion was made by Sir John Findlay at Auckland the other day, the chief advice given by the candidate for Parnell being to the effect that more should be done in the way of breaking up great estates, instancing that Britain bad not only now the power to purchase great estates, but to obtain renewable perpetual leases of them. A Bill, which was intended as a partial solution of Xew Zealand's land troubles, was introduced but not passed during the past session, and proposed that the State should act as intermediary between the small man with an appetite for land and the big man who was gorged with it, the owner transferring his ownership to the Government at the Government valuation on condition that the land was disposed of to small settlers on a system of progress payment over ten years, the land to be disposed of by Government auction. The State would take a small percentage to cover cost of management and collection. Sir John Findlay, in explaining this scheme, said he believed some of the largest landholders would agree to it. Sir John Findlay holds, as so many others hold, that a crisis is approaching in regard to land settlement, there being now (on a Government estimate) but 135,000 acres of first-class Crown lands left fur distribution which, it is computed, will be alienated before long. It is assumed that the graduated land tax has done much to put privately-owned areas of over 10,000 acres into the market during the past few years, but although the big privately-owned areas have been reduced by three million acres during the decade, one half (so it is estimated) has boon purchased by the Government. Of course the several owners of these areas, totalling one and n-lialf million acres, have "seen the Government coming." and so the very keenness of the State to settle the lands and cut up great estates has greatly increased the price of land. A point touched on in Sir. John Findlay's speech was that great landholders found it comparatively easy to avoid payment of the graduated land tax by careful distribution to relatives, thus really preserving intact some of the largest estates and being under no compulsion to disgorge to cither lb,. Government or the small settler. To acquire large areas the Government must have large sums of money, which must be borrowed. It is pointed out that in order to acquire the estates ne-

cessary Tor the growing demands of the land-hungry-, the Government must borrow about la millions in addition to the six millions that has been borrowed in the past few years for the same, purpose. In shout, if the land is to be retailed or leased by trie Government and hot by the private owner (whose price would probably be prohibitive) Hie, Government must in the future, before the crisis arrives, compel the private landholders having "huge, estates to disgorge. T-t is, of ('ours-;, absolutely inevitable that the population of New Zealand will be greatly augmented if not by natural increase by additions from outside. By compulsion Denmark succeeded in bursting up great estates owned by a few persons and setting nearly 200,000 people on them. Denmark has. of course,'discovered this to be as economically sound as France has found it, and has decreased her social problems very materially . The problem is an exceedingly difficult one in a country where huge areas of land were alienated in the early days, simply because there was no competition in settlement. There was, indeed, in the early days no lusty cry from the people, because there were so few people. Nowadays, however, the people begin to insist that New Zealand is for them as well as for the sons of Unfortunate pioneers who had foresight and enterprise enough to grasp the great chances then to be taken. A great deal is heard about the big extent of undeveloped Crown and Maori lands, but these for the most part are poor in quality and practically inaccessible at the present time. Our great area of unoccupied good lands are held neither by the Crown nor by the natives. Tlwy are held by Europeans. In Marlborough only 308,410 acres out of 2,439,680 acres are improved. The Wellington Times recently showed that the population of this province is less than 3% souls to the square mile, and the increase during the last quinquennium did not amount to one person for every three square miles. Marlborough's natural increase of population is lost owing directly to monopoly of land. In the Wairarapa district conditions are little better. Only 30% per cent, of the 610,320 acres in Featherston County is "improved/' In Hawkc's Hay—where, according to figures given out last year, twenty-four persons own half a million; acres of land —fully two-thirds of the province is what Mr. Massey would certainly call '■'waste'' if his friends did not happen to own it. The area of Waipawa County is C 33.600 acres, of which 04y z per cent. is in a .state of nature. In Wairoa County, 1.207,080 acres, the area even slightly improyed is but 373,7 IS acres, or 23 per cent, The county of Haw-ke's Bay has hut 537.503 acres improved out of :i total of 2.058,480 acres. Out of every hundred acres in that magnificent county practically 74 acres have no improvements except the wire fences ground them. All these lands are in European hands, are m open country ''settled" for half a century, accessible by roads and near railways constructed at the public cost. The remedy? Stiffen the graduated tax on the unimproved, value. Make it so heavy that a man will be unable, to hold more than, say, .toO.OOO to £60.000 worth of unimproved property. The Government propose to increase the tax from the £IOO,OOO point, which is quite insufficient, in our opinion, to bring about the desired end. If the pressure is applied sufficiently there would, in our opinion, soon be enough land available to satisfy present needs, at any rate. Who is more likely to apply that pressure—the Government or the "Reform" Party ? •

"SILLY FETISHES." Probably the recently cabled utterances of the Rev. Inge, Dean of St. Paul's. London, were deemed peculiarly applicable to Xew Zealand, else they would not have been cabled. The reverend gentleman, speaking of the "silly fetishes" of the democracy which he alleged was driving industrial wealth to the East, made a very telling point when he said that a bad fate would befal Australia, which was within easy reach of I'moiT efficient" industrials. There is, indeed, no great' industrial class in Australia, and when you speak about the efficiency of the yellow man you mean the efficiency that is in the blood of the mechanic caste handed down for countless generations and showing itself in perfection of handicraft absolutely unknown in British colonies. There is less straining after manual efficiency in the colonies than straining after doinireancy by the unskilled both in handicraft and government, and this tendency, which is so unreasonably believed to be nationally good is really the early sign of national atrophy. "Socialism," said the clergyman, "might suit a country like Xew Zealand until the British Xavy ceased to safeguard it," but Socialism in Xew Zealand or the flaccid article that passes for it never has recognised that it exists merely because of this great defensive organisation. Tf the Dean had come to Xew Zealand and talked about "pampered trade unionism" he would be denounced and derided from the Xorth Cape to the BlufF. but he would be perfectly right in holding (he theory about "far more efficient yellow industrials." Under the most adverse conditions the meanest coolie comes to Xew Zealand and in open competition manages to achieve what he calls success. AVo are very angry with the Chinese who butts into our preserves, but we never oust him by showing such superior skill that he must clear out to avoid the starvation that comes with efficient competition. The. safety of the co'onies depends on the birth and growth of national duty as distinct from class arrogance and domination, greater industrial skill, the attraction of men and women whose' handicrafts will be assets to the country when the voice of the person who never works is taken, no notice of by people who are too interested and too busy to worry about "Socialism" or class consciousness.

as the morning tub. Some Swedish investigators have concluded si series of experiments which aimed at proving the power of electrified Atmosphere Lo make children grow. They selected two groups of twenty-five children each, as nearly alike as possible in general health, size and weight. The children were scut to school for a year in two rooms of similar construction, but the group in one room was exposed constantly to the influence of electric currents, which were passed through the room-, while the other group pursued its studies under normal conditions. All the children were weighed and measured and tested in other ways at regular intervals, ! and at the end of the period the investi- I gator announced that the children who had spent four or five hours a ray in an atmosphere charged with electricity had quite outstripped the others in development. They had grown faster, put on weight more qrtickly, and maintained a better standard of physical fitness, and it'was asserted that their mental powers were superior to those of the children who had been living under ordinary conditions. The originators of the experiment claimed that they had gone a great deal further than any previous investigators had done and they had been entirely successful. In addition to emphasising the value of the recognised tonic effects of electricity they had proved indisputably that the development of children could be assisted and even forced. If their operations are continued there will soon be no Peter Pan in Sweden, but few parents probably will appreciate the efforts of these soulless scientists to shorten the happy days of childhood.