The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1914. HIGH PRICED LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 19 June 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1914. HIGH PRICED LAND.

Tliu opinions of Mr Harold Beauchamp, chairman of directors of the Bank of Xrvv Zealand, on matters affecting trade and finance are always interesting and valuable, and what lie had to say in his annual report last week concerning the primary industries should he carefully considered by the men on the land. After pointing out the great strides the dairying industry had made during the past four years, he went fully into the question of laud values and the way they have increased. Twenty years ago, he said, land that could hayc been bought at from £5 to £ls per acre is now selling at from £2O to £75 per acre, an increase of -100 per cent. The gross \ ield per acre lias, however, not increased in a corresponding ratio, being only 130 per cent more to-day than it was then. These are significant figures, and show dearly that the increase in the price of land has been out of all proportion to the increased price of produce. Yet we have land boomsters in the province declaring that land can be profitably worked in Taranaki at £IOO per acre! Mr Beauchamp observed that the value of dairying land is adjusting itself at such a level as leaves no room for the "slip-shod" farmer, and that if Hie industry is to continue payable, with land at such high values, scientific principles must lie followed and the most approved methods adopted, in order that the very best returns on the labor and '•apital employed may be realised. With i.hcse remarks, most observant people will concur. But there is just one point ihal might lie mentioned, how can the average buyer of high-priced land, say in Taranaki —who generally agrees to pay something down in the neighborhood of a pound an acre, and give, mortgages for the rest of the purchase money —afford to buy the best pure-bred stock, fertilisers, machinery; in short for intense methods? These are what the Bank chairman means when he reconmicnds the adoption of "most approved methods" of farming. It simply cannot be done, and is not done. Highpriced dairying land is good to no community, which is penalised in many ways by the heavy appreciation going on. Kconomically, as Mr Beauchamp absolutely proves, the high prices cannot be justified. They are only possibe by reason of the fact that most of the nominal purchasers rely on their wives and families to provide the necessary labor, for which allowance is seldom made. After a season or two, they are glad to avail themselves of a chance to transfer "the baby" to someone else, hitherto generally at a profit, and there arc indications that this sort of thing has almost reached its limit, there being now a steadying influence at work. The strain in regard to land values is altogether too great to allow of justice Icing done to the dairying industry. The only men who can afford to follow scientific principles, and thereby get the maximum results, are the men who have been in possession of their farms for any length of time. In point of fact they are showing the lead. "Slip-shod" farming and high-prices land arc synonymous terms in Taranaki, and, what in more, they cannot well be otherwise.