HIGH LAND VALUES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 193, 29 May 1934, Page 7

HIGH LAND VALUES.

& AN ADJUSTMENT NEEDED.

VIEWS OF HON A. D. McLEOD

(Special to the " Guardian.") MARTINBOROUGH, May 25

Effects of the high values for land on the economic position of the Dominion ■nrei-e referred to by the Hon. A. D. McLeod, member for Wairarapa, when addressing a public meeting at Dyerville'last eyening. Mr McLeod thought all would agree that land prices had risen much too high, in the cities as well as in rural districts.

A real problem to-day was koAv best to adjust matters with fairness to all the interests involved, said Mr McLeod. Callously-minded individuals with no fear for their own positions were to be heard stating that the proper method of settling the difficulty was for the Government to allow oldtime economio laws to effect a cure. It would be just as fair to allow old : time economic laws to effect a cure for unemployment which meant get work or starve. Were present land values as assessed by the Government valuers too high? Personally he had long argued that they were, as far as unimproved values were concerned The assessed value of improvements on rural lands to-day stood at £145,000,000 and the unimproved at £195,000,000. Even in the present condition of necessary producing improvements on farm lands, he was quite satisfied that values were still far below replacement cost. Speaking in Parliament just prior to the lifting of the exchange as a result of Government action, Mr McLeod said he had pointed out that if the average values of meat and wool for the years 1929-33 were to be the average of future years, and that if costs remained fixed, it would be necessary to write off fully 75 per cent from the unimproved values of sheep-farming lands. To-day he would say the same of dairying lands. The recent rise in meat values an Britain had been of greater assistance to the majority of sheep-farmers in New Zealand than had the rise of wool values. Without doubt the rise in meat values had been caused as a result of the Ottawa agreements, which largely restricted the imports of foreign meats into. Britain. Whether such restrictions would continue or become more severe as far as the Dominions were concerned depended more on the mood of British consumers and producers, combined with the skill and ability with which our negotiators acted, than on any cries we might put up of not having quotas at any price.