The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1913 LAND FOR THE LANDLESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 266, 2 April 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1913 LAND FOR THE LANDLESS.

There are two sides to eevry question, ami this holds true with regard to the problem of how to bring together manless lands and landless men. We have dwelt upon the necessity of filling up the empty spaces of the Dominion, but we fully recognise that only one-half of the problem will be solved by a vigorous policy of immigration. The other and more difficult half deals with the providing of land for the landless. The land is here in sufficient area to give profitable employment to hundreds of thousands of people; but, despite this fact, there are many difficulties in the way of obtaining it. Although the work of throwing open areas of new country goes on continuously, every land ballot finds hundreds of disappointed applicants. There is not enough land immediately available to meet the earth-hunger of the people already in the Dominion. How, then, shall we provide for the thousands whom we are inviting to our shores? The immigrants whom the Government chiefly encourages are men with capital who are prepared to "go on the land"; after them, assistance is given to farm and domestice workers. Yet the fanner with capital frequently finds on coming here that lie has to wait many months before he lias even a chance of getting land; and at the same time the farmers who have land complain of the lack of labor to work it. "The scarcity of labor is a vital problem," remarked Mr. Lorimer. one of the Empire Trade Commissioners, when summing up his impressions of New Zealand. -It would seem, therefore, that in the meantime we do not so much require men of means as men of brawn and muscle, ready to undertake agricultural and pastoral labor. After this pressing want has been met bv the importation of some thousands of immigrants, it will be time enough to invite fanners with capital. Before that stage is readied, it is the imperative duty of the Government to see that land is immediately available. There arc three causes that operate to make land difficult to obtain in New Zealand. The first is the lack of road and railway communication; the second is the slow rate at which survey work is carried on; the third is the defective state of the law, which not only permits individuals to hold larger areas than they can use, but also allows them to increase their holdings by acquiring fresh blocks of' iJuid.' • The two firstmentioned causes are mainly matters of finance, for we assume that Ministers are sincere in their, .profession of a desire to further land Settlement by all means in their power. To provide unimproved areas of land for new settlers, therefore, there must be a larger allocation of money for the purpose of surveying and opening up the country roads and railways. So long as the present stringency in the .money market continues, it may not be practicable to increase the expenditure in these directions. The tightness of money may also prevent the Government from pursuing a vigorous policy of re-purchasing large estates and subdividing them for settlement; but We trust that whataver funds art available will be devoted to .this purpose as expeditiously as possible. •I'lieve is one thing that can be done to solve the problem without the expenditure of money, and that is to amend the law so as to prevent the flagrant re-aggre-gation of land that is going on in various parts of the Dominion. At the meeting of the Wellington Land Board last week reference was made to the facilities for "land-grabbing" tliat exist, and it was alleged that it was legally possible for a few families to "mop up all the laud in the country."' Such a state of things ought not to prevail in a country that prides itself on its democratic land legislation, and this unsatisfactory state of thing should be promptly amended by a Parliament that boasts of a '"record" number of farmers among its members, If the Reform Government wishes fo make good its professions, it will at once take steps to remedy such a crying abuse. Flagrant instances of re-aggre-gation have, lately been adduced by the Wellington Post in a series of special articles on the subject. Within the last few years, it is shown, one family has been piling up vast estates by purchasing freeholds, including some that

were converted from Government leaseholds. These aggregations have now reached the total of 16,715 acres, valued at £62,433; yet on this large area only ten men are employed, exclusive of contract labor. If cut up into farms of 500 acres each, this land would provide a good living for thirty-three settlers and their families, and there would be a large increase of produce from the soil. This is but a sample of what is going on all over the country, and, in addition, it is said that in many cases leases of educational reserves are held by land monopolists who have large freeholds. There, is assuredly something rotten in our land laws, or their administration, when such things are possible—when a few men are allowed to lock up lands for which hundreds of others are clamoring in vain, while others, sick from hope deferred, are leaving for countries where a more enlightened system enables them to get land at cheap rates and without delay. As compared,with Australia or Canada, the urea of New Zealand is so limited, and the, configuration of the country is so suited to small farming, that very drastic laws against aggregation. rfnd stringent regulations as to improvement and cultivation, would be amply justified. An additional turn of the land-tax screw is not sufficient. It may, indeed, prove an aggravation, Inraising the price of land, which is already too high. Neither "bursting-up" nor expropriation is the true remedy. The way to ensure a supply of land for the landless is to strictly limit the area that can be legally held by one indivi-

dual or corporation, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Massey will at once take steps to have legislation in this direction introduced and passed.