LAND VALUES.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 281, 6 December 1911, Page 5

LAND VALUES.

TO TITK KBITOIt. Sir. —The Opposition lias continually railed against the high values of land and. lias repeatedly stated that those values are too high. In. many eases they an- too high, tor the nonprogressive fanner —the man who pureliases a block of Jatid with little or no mortgage on his farm; in short the man of wealth. I, as a farmer, want to ask every thinking farmer, every business man, every financial expert, what would be the condition of this Dominion if land values were reduced, say, £2 per acre. Many ™ the progressive, farmers who have spent everv penny they could upon increasing the productivity of thenfarms, ' would go to the wall. Iho farmers would come into the hands of the financial institutions —into the. hands of the ten and twelve per cent, men. If the lean years so long predicted come, the rich men would be in a. positoin to foreclose and buy up trie properties, and afterwards, on recovery, sell at enhanced prices. The position that J. point out is one of the most serious difficulties in which the small landowner will be placed should the Opposition gain power. If the Government had not placed on the statute book the Advances to Settlers Act, whereby money was made available to the farmers, where would manv of the farmers be to-day who are now on comfortable holdings? By introducing this Act the Government forced the big lending institutions into line, and consequently the whole of the farmers have been enabled to secure cheap money. —I am, etc., FARMER.

gard to the Graduated Land Tax, and 1 have no doubt his fears are shared by liis wealthy friends in proportion to the area ot country thev licild. Mr Herdman, at Dannevirko, franklv and freely admitted lie was not in favor of the Graduated Land Tax, and the free and independent electors of AYaipawa may safely take it for granted that in making that statement .Mr Herdman was expressing the political opinion of his party. At the same time it is impossible not to sympathise with Air .Rathbone, because apart from the personal aspect of this iniquitous (?) tax, as far as lie himself is concerned, there is another aspect of the question to consider, that is, its application to the Conservative candidate for the Waipawa seat. Every person, who lias given the matter an intelligent thought, must admit that the very life blood of Dannevirke and many other towns similarly situated depend on the closer settlement of the land, and it is equally clear that no Government can go on borrowing for the purpose of purchasing estates at as hist a rate as the development of the country demands. Further, the Graduated Tax is preferable because it forces the owner of. .say, forty thousand acres to subdivide bis estate himself and place it on the market instead of selling it to the Government at. a figure which makes the rent a burden upon the settlers for the first year or two. No doubt .Mr .Rathbone fully appreciates the foregoing features of the case, and is fully alive to the fact that Air Herdhian's candid admission that he was against the Graduated Land Tax told heavily against the client whose cause he had come from Wellington to advocate.—i am. etc., SMALL SETTLER.