UNEARNED INCREMENT OF LAND.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12177, 25 April 1905, Page 9

UNEARNED INCREMENT OF LAND.

to the -torron or thus -press. Si,—What rot it is te talk about the unehied increment of land. It strikes meif there waa to be no good-will attched to any business or any incremeft to tbe farmers' industry allowed,, thi there would be utter stagnation, ani we should revert to a savage state. Itls the corner stone of all industry a-i thrift. I think that tbere never h* been, and never will be, increment ride on the average of values without ijlu-ttry, thrift, economy, and extraorchary labour, or force of ciroumstances, id that on an average no body of ten, no traders, or workers, are 60 htitled by their thrift, labour, and rains, as the farmers or land workers b the increment arising out of such a lower. Take the inorement away, and io one would do anything except in a istless way, just living, because there could be no encouragement to do more. iThe increment is at the root of all /prosperity, and yet people aro so mad as to want te destroy it. That fallacious idea that all increment should belong to the Statej is a very Utopian theory. If the New Zealand "Government did not own an inch of land as the landlord, it would be infinitely better for her. No State should own an inch of land, its duties aro quite sufficient without it, and as soon as New Zealand receives a check in her land industries, the whdom of not being a landlord will become very apparent. Buying -estates to open out the country is her vocation, and also selling the freehold in small blocks; thus rearing and fostering a sturdy race of yeomen independent and self reliant. Every quarter-acre t-eotion should be a freehold to the workers in town, and thej all try to make it so; so also every farm should belong to the. man that works it.—Youre, etc.. COMMON SENSE.