THE FARMER'S POSITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 113, 16 May 1927, Page 6

THE FARMER'S POSITION.

Mr. Robinson runs from one position \ another, jingling high-sounding but einpti sentences, hiding himself behind Mr. Poison and his figures, which are not in question ia this controversy, and which have not yet seen the light of day. It is Hall Skelton's facts. - statements and opinions on certain economfeprinciples versus Mr. A. E. Robinson's on tl»t- '; questions relating to the farmer's position.' You cannot divorce party policy from legislaVt " tive economic success «or failure. What «*- the issues in our debate? The general issue 5 •'' before up is: Why did the Liberal economie * policy incorporated in our legislation, put into M execution, produce years of economic success' and prosperity from 1890 to 1912, to farmer* - and others, out of Conservative blundering aad chaos prior to 1890? And why has the ralkr : f of the present Conservative party, which berately smashed the Liberal land policy to enrich the wealthy landholders and impoveri* the rest of the community, ended in utter chaos both to farmer, commercial man and industrialist? The answer is economically incompetent handling of land legislation and tax*, tion; nothing more, nothing less. The disease must not be confused with the sufferings therefrom; sound principles must not be confused with results arising from the application of unsound principles to our. land problems. Every schoolboy in economics knows that we have been deluged with inflated unimproved land values, resulting in a deluge of mortgages, inflated and otherwise, rack rents and killing interest bill of costs. Look at the figures:—Unimproved value—the yearly aggie- i gated increase up to 1912 was" £199".184jei whereas it jumped to £339,310,260 in 1925, and incidentally was raised from 1918 to 1921 by ■-.} the economic suicidal increase of £.57.000,000, directly producing the financial and economic chaos of 1920, 1921, and the following years of depression. No one but economic amatenrs would have permitted such political follv Jfow, mortgages from 1840 to 1900 gradually aggregated £90,000,000, but suddenly from 1912 ? to 1926 rose to £282,733,589. It is almost im- ? possible to statistically calculate fluctuations of rent with reasonable mathematical preci- ' sion, but I think most people will agree rente have risen 300 to 400 per cent since Reform- r> Conservatism transplanted Liberalism Thepurchasing power of the £1 has dropped on" the three essentials of living from 19/7 to about 7/10. Bad business is written over the . door of every farmer's cottage, shop, manufacturing concern and professional ofiice. The wage-earners were never nearer starvation and a host of social evils almost unheard of in ' Liberal days blacken the national conscience. Will Mr. Robinson explain these shocking results outside the mishandling of land profri lems bj Reform? A. HALL SKELTON.