MR G.M. PARK'S PAMPLET.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2472, 9 December 1886, Page 2

MR G.M. PARK'S PAMPLET.

Napier Telegraph. We have received a copy oU pamphlet on. the subject of.. "The.Unemployed, | audthe-Koiieiy," by MrQa'nn-M.-P<irk.. The author doesnot claim orujinallty for \ the remedy he proposes; he askuoffiwlgM that,he has adup.kd the aaggeitlona of others, notably those- of Heury George! ■ Ahhowu'everybody ■ may nof agree .with Mr Park's remedy, to which. we shall allude later, on, that gentlemen Has" hit the right nail on the head when he Bays that the immediate cause of the present depression is mainly owing to the continued low prices ruled for ouV two staple articles of export, namely, wool and «min. Tho fact of our being almost ontirely dependent upon these two sources for our successful existence may well make us pause and oast about for ,a. remedy which shall plaoe the colony in a better p>isitiou to withstand those tem-porary-depressions to.which we are always liable while our commodities for .eswrtKfl Bolimited, and while so many articles have to be imported whioh mightwith ease be supplied within the ,eolopy. The fall in the price of wool and wain however, only hastened the crisis which sooner orlater. must'.have followed the over-Bpeoulation which has caiMedland-r. espeoiallyjin- Oanterbury-to 'reich'; a, speculative, value far above its real value.. It'has been' sold arid ik)ught' at ■pribei: whioh.'wiUnotadm.itof its retnrningia •fair profit upofl the capital ejpendeoV in its purchase, • Men have been'. paving",: four or five pounds'per aore for land •which they know is not in. reality''worth one pound- per acre for productive purposes. They buy to sell again, speculating upon the chances of obtaining an advance; and consequently those land owners who possess land (which is too often mortgaged up to, and sometimes iir excess of its real productive value), are irretrievably ruined in the wave of depression.. When this takes placeiaborers are; thrown out ot employment until the value «tf the land U adjusted by falling to its normal value when it oan be advantageously worked. Mr Park goes on to say, "This is what is taking place in Otago and Canterbury at present, and to my mind the culy temedy which will prevent »recurrence of these periodical depressions, or ;it least modify their disastrous effects, is tint indicated by Heury George in his work entitled " Progress and Poverty," namely, the nationalisation of the land,' This, than, is Mr: Park's remedy, because; as he •says, .)t would abolish speculation in land, and by keeping its price down, would enable the ocoupicf to get a fairreturn for arid labor, :We do not ;agrea. with;. Mi' Park's deduction for' jthe simplereaium that nO'syatem of krid t ;'tiationalJßation to be lucdasaf ul bduld bfti'ij dodupißr s" io ; the, jsoil. .they would;;hW|ty'liberty to sell their leases', togethersjth their improve-, raents, and in. epaculative periods there would be" speculative prices demanded and given..'; Mr'Piirk gives the credit to Mr Mlaaton'"'|oi' having .first introduced the perpetual; leasing system into the colony. Ot late, he says, an attempt has been made, .'to popularise the perpetual leasing.system, and laws have bean passed, with a view to inducing people to take up land undef that system; but the principle of land nationalisation has been allowed to go by the board as theright of purchase after the lapse of six years, :has been conceded. This blindfold attempt to reconcile old prejudices, and at the same time adopt the principles advocated by Henry (Jeorge oannot result in anything but failure; it. is building a new house on a.rotten leasehold tenure is to:be adopt» at all, it must be perpetiial leasing,... pure. and simple; arid an entire alteration in the prinoiple.up&n'whioti our land laws are to be administered must take place.. Mr Park attributes the failure of the doferred' payment and other systems devised..for settling people ou the land to:—long diatauce.from markets: insufficiency of Capital' to make the.laud .productive j . time whiebmust elapse before anything, oan. be got off the land; absence of employment.near the locality, whereby the selector oan maintain his family,. while, at the same time, getting his laud in order and paying the full rental on the land from the commencement of his license to occupy the Bamu, instead of having to pay on a graduated scale whereby his rent would be low at first, and gradually increased alter time has been given for the improvement and conseouent profitable working of hU holding These are a tew of the reasons whicli often cause failure and utter baudruptcy after many years of hard slaving toil,