THE LAND CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 20

THE LAND CONFERENCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —This conference has'shown more clearly than ever that the Reform party have got the land problems in a terrible mess, and do not know where to start to rebuild from the ruins. The arguments of high cost, of bringing land in, high working costs and improving production are mere evidences the failure of the scientific application of economic principles to legislation as applied to land and its working. Not one word was said on these vital matters. The fact is,' Keform broke up the progressive system of Liberalism either in their ignorance or for selfish aggrandisement of the wealthy. They went straight at the sound foundations of a land system which, from 1890 to 1912, resulted in unparalleled prosperity during those years. They failed to use effectively the weapon of graduated land tax to prevent inflation of land values and fictitious mortgages whereby at least £150,000,000 of purely fictitious land values arose, that which has created the present agrarian dilemma, the gravity of which was at last realised by all speakers. For years the farmers trusted Reform's loud professions of sincerity as the farmers' friend, trusting them as a political party, expecting so much from election pledges always broken, and lulled into false security by the Reform Press in its shameful propaganda wherein it sacrificed the agarian class and the country generally for pure political and party purposes. The farmer stands today with comparatively high prices for his produce, far higher than during the Liberal regime, and yet he never was so poor. Why? Hβ stands handcuffed and manacled, broken with inflated land valuations and mortgages and an intolerable load of indirect taxation, ostracised from capital, and at the same time carrying an overwhelming load of local body taxation. What a spectacle! No possibility for settlement on the land, land top dear to work, cost of production too expensive. What admissions. The Hon. Hawkins' remarks recently show that he wants to come back to the Liberal land system, but, of course, he will not be allowed. Poor Mr. McLeod is left in a maze of bewilderment, unable to make a start anywhere since the foundations collapse whichever direction he moves. The leading Reform paper moans that the social fabric must be reconstructed, an equally glaring admission from a paper that has been very largely responsible for the present conditions of agrarian paralysis. Reform's policy has hopelessly failed, and has spread ruin in all directions. The foundations of a new policy' must be laid by the reorganisation of our land legislation and the proper use of graduated land tax. No improvement can ever take place till these foundations are properly laid. The call of true Liberalism is spreading like wildfire. Reform haa failed the country, and the depression of the eighties is with us again. Camouflage conferences to save the face of Ministers of Land will be of no avail.—l am, etc A. HALL SKELTON.