BRITAIN'S LAND SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 29, 3 February 1913, Page 5

BRITAIN'S LAND SYSTEM.

RUSTY AND EFFETE. HALF-STARVED WORKERS. A STARTLING REPORT. LONDON, February 1. Mr LJoyd (ieorge, speaking at the National Liberal Club, said the foremost task in the near future was the regeneration of Britain's rural life, and the emancipation of the land from the paralysing gi"ip of a rusty, effete, and unprofitable system. The land ought to produce twice its present output. The remedy wa.s not a tax on food, nor the crushing of the. land by fresh taxation. Mr Lloyd George denied the euggestion that the Government conducted a clandestine inquiry into the private, personal affairs of the landowners with a view to making attacks on then- political opponents. He said that the Government merely filled in the gaps in the incomplete reports of previous investigations. It was impossible to get unfettered evidence, he said, through official inquiries. The results of the inquiry would soon be published, and he forecasted startling results.

He alleged that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of men were employed on the land under conditions which ought to make the great Empire hang its head' ■with shame. Workers were not paid enough to keep their wives and children above =emi-starvation, and the land was held under conditions which would discourage capital and brains being invested in its development. Many rural workers had been driven into the towns by the depressing wages, and had thus created unemployment. The remedy ought to cover both country and town labour. It was everybody's interest, he added, to see that the land was placed on a business footing. The "Daily Mail" interprets the speech as an indication of differences between Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George regardI ing the Liberal party's programme for next session. The "Pall Mall Gazette' , states that Mr Lloyd George's speech confirms the rumoured postponement of his pe.t land programme in preference to an amending Education Bill.