THE LAND QUESTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 60, 12 March 1926, Page 12

THE LAND QUESTION.

J - (To the -Editor, i - Sir.—Having shown that from 1839 to 1891 the people's. party' fought, indefatigably . without . success .to prevent further' land aggregation and to smash up the squatters' wide domains, a thousand of whom own half oi the usable land of the Dominion, bought for a few thousand pounds; and having 'shown that land aggregation can only be checkmated by the graduated land tax. and that normal land values .can only be j kept so by the same tax; it is obvious I now to the most casual thinker that the Wakefield party and their succesj sors down to, and' including Reform, I knew perfectly well -what they were ! doing in supporting the principles of (1) no tax on land; (2) land aggregation; (3) overdoses of immigration. They had. in"the years mentioned below, the experience of ..blocking men from the land, pauperising the entire population and spending money wholesale on emigration. The fatal years. ISSO to IS9I, taught them this, as well as the mass, who tumultuously arose • and ousted these land grabbers and thoroughly selfish -agrarian element from the Treasury benches. The great lesson which starvation taught the people then is lost to-day, and- the almost total absence of political instinct and public interest in .recent years in political and economic science marks the New Zealander as one of the most, lethargic i thinkers imagfnable. He allows him- ' self to be politically and. eeonomieallv ! bluffed, bamboozled and lampooned. He i sees thousands out of work, taking J work at low wages, yet thousands of ; emigrants are~ being poured into our . bare labour market to swell the unemployment. He forgets, because he is too fond of the purposely-created amusements to preoccupy him. to read his own history. Is he not aware, that amid the ruins of our country in 1890, the then Reform Party, with astounding impudence, spent £60.000 that year on emigration and lost 10,800' of our population the very same year? They knew full well that there was no work for the people, but cold-bloodedly pursued their vicious course' to swell "their land values despite the starving populace. It took wholesale starvation to enable the seeds of Conservatism to work its own undoing in 1890,' and to-day New Zealand is heading straight for .another smash more serious than ISSO ito 1800. unless the present party reorganises immediately with all s'peed'a land" policy on the Liberal-party's wonderful system, which they hare already destroyed. That party ■ laid the foundation stone of tie tomb of the land shark; but green moss grows on it now, and the wewis of Reform have covered it up; and the wild . ass of Conservatism stamps-on its site. ilr. Coates Etands on thfi-brink of the precipice. No man ever faced graver issues. Is he coin* to hurl himself on the rocks beneath or turn back from his dangerous pathwax- and champion the cause of the people and save the country from its impending peril. His course is cleaT- • cut. He can befriend the selfish land shark and land monopolist and liave a ' monetary glory, or he can do a far. far better thing, rehabilitate our broken country, and give us back our one time prosperity. It lies in his power I jam, etc., A. H^l/SKELTON.