THE DRIFT TO THE TOWNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 13

THE DRIFT TO THE TOWNS.

(To (.he Edltor.l . I Sir, Your correspondent "Suburbs," ! while agreeing with mc on the land ques- I tion, says "the gambling instinct is too i ( strong in the community to expect them to desire a law that would put a .-top to land speculation." In reply. I would point out that only a small fraction of the people are in a position to gamble in land, no matter how much they may desire to do so, and therefore it is reasonable to suppose that the great majority, just as soon as they learn what is involved in this evil, will vote for the necessary legislation to put a stop to it. The Labour party, representing one-fourth of tbe voters of Xew . j Zealand, are pledged to increase the taxon land values. It is not a question of the gambling instinct, it is" just a matter iof education; the people have only to J understand that private property in land j lies at the root of all the evils which | are bound up in poverty (and they are 190 per cent of the whole) in order to rise up and make the necessary' changes. I i Mr. Davey T draws a pen picture of what I | the backhlocks mean to women and ■ 1 children which could be elaborated lad infinitum. They are to the country what the slums are to the city, and . the same legislation will remedy both.— I I am, etc., C.H.N.