THE LAND PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 69, 23 March 1937, Page 6

THE LAND PROBLEM.

PROTECTION FOR THE FARMER (To the Editor.) Mr. Tidd says that dairy farmers have proved their ability to compete in world markets without protection and on a falling market. May I direct Mr. Tidd's attention to the fact that the 25 per cent exchange was put on not to save the farming community from virtual bankruptcy but to save the big stock agencies from actual bankruptcy, pract£ cally the whole of the farming community of this Dominion being heavily mortgaged to these companies and being to this day virtually bankrupt. Mr. Tidd asks who is the poorer for the rise in wool and the increased price of butterfat under the guarantee, remembering that the primary producer gets nothing without benefiting everyone. The question was wrongly put. It should be who is the richer? And to that we can correctly answer everyone except the primary producer for he is merely seeing some of hi* back interest being met, and that's small comfort. Later in his letter Mr. Tidd mentions "other people's supposed freeholds." He is right there, and that is just where the value of State ownership of land comes in. Were the farmers under this system, the primary producers would themselves draw all the benefits from increased prices for primary produce. Tfce land system we now use has done more to impoverish the farmer than he will probably ever realise. Anyone who is acquainted with farming in England knows that you can buy there a fully-improved farm with a wonderful array of buildings for less than has been paid for many an unimproved farm here. G. B. SKILL