CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1545, 27 November 1883, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To THE BdIIOB. :■'", ■■ ■■: >4 ■ • t Sir,—l notice in your issue of 19th inst,, a letter written by a Mr McKeever in which he. states, "He with, thousands of others are for Land Nationalisation," A little farther on he says, "There are too many landlord! in New, Zealand already, and.be'fora another thirty years all their 'estate* must be purchased by the Government for Nationalisation ..purposes,". To, substantiate his argument he'goes on to say " Jery little is gained by selling the public estate, for the proceeds are squandered, while our national debt, is fast increasing; but if tho State had possession of these lands and rented them out, then the interest on our borrowed millions could easily be met." It is ray clear Mr McKeever does not hold with the past borrowing and expending policy of our Government, He states the Government squander the State capital; but puts forth no argu> me'itf that they would not squander State interest. But, nevertheless, he is quite prepared to support the Govern- • raentin taking possession of individual land, and bring thousands at his back. Such a step as_this would bring New Zealand into irretrievable ruin, for while Mr McKeever provides for the interest on our present national debt, he quite forgets to cover interest of money borrowed for the purchase of individual land. Had Mr McKeever used the word rdhhd instead of pur- . chased, I could have followed his argument. If the Government are to ':. purchase individual land the money must come in some shape out of the pockets of the tax-paying community, and the country is at once saddled with an enormous debt. Unless then, the ; land is subsequently let at its full value to cover interest on capital, the community at large in addition to paying interest on existing liability, will be taxed for the benefit of tenants ; while the door will be open to endless favoritism and corruption in the selection of the Stato tenants who aro to have their rates partly paid by the unfavored ones, or those who are not desirous of tilling the soil. If on tho ; other hand the land is let at its full value, the tenants' position will be worse off than if he held it from a private individual who would be'liablo to be influenced in time of depression, as he would have for a land lord an administrative body acting upon inflexible rules, and then the very men who now pay the bulk of taxation would be driven from the country, I am, <fcc, ( K. R. Meredith. Beaumaviß, Nov 21, 1883.