INFLATED LAND VALUES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 147, 22 June 1923, Page 10

INFLATED LAND VALUES.

(To the- Editor.) Sir, —The question of giving the returned soldiers on the land" a modicum of just relief is urgent. It is bad enough to realise that the law can and does protect usury or we should never see 150 per cent paid for a small sum and that it should require legal powers to upset the usurer. The law makers arc just as harsh in their heavy burdens placed upon our returned soldiers. This can be seen from the publication of the purchase of estates by the Government.

It will be noticed that between 1914----1919—the war years —the cost per acre of Crown Land purchases increased from £5 3/ per acre to £10 10/, and from 1011) to 1921 the area purchased to 281,847 Rcres from 108,747 in 1019, and the purchase money to £3,030,423 or £12 17/ per acre. 'But from March 31. 1921, to March 31, 1922, is the staggerer—l 2 estates purchased for £219,046 or £26 12/ per acre. These items since 1919 should be seriously inquired into, who sold the estates to the Crown, their nimes, area, and amount received per acre, the average acreage of these estates being 689. Looking at the jump in the land values from 1014 to 1919 from £5 3/ per acre to £10 16/. it seems as if it were an easy matter to decide the land values by cutting them c.own onehalf—4Bß.Ssß ' acres at £5,005.005—0r, roughly, £3,000.000 as a square deal. The Oovernment have always stated that in increasing land values they did not allow the inflated values to influence them—what was the influence?—l am, etc., SQUARE DEAL.

Xo. or Area Estates PurI'nr- chased. ohntJpd. Acros. To 1004... 131 ma.snn To 1012... K (W1,«S7 To 1014... 41 JI»3.-l2.-> To l!>in. .. 148 108 747 To 1021... 100 281.817 To WT2... 12 i S.2(M I'nr- • chas« Money. 2,030,1.". ■.i.nfis.oio osa.r.42 2.i44.firto 3.e30.533 21ii.!i40 Hale per Acre. 4 ir. 4 S 5 :! in iii 12 17 ■Jfi 12