LAND POLICY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 20

LAND POLICY

i TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —I was interested to hear the Minister for Lands, in his speech broadcast from the House the other night, outlining his land policy and achievements to date. It is undoubtedly good political strategy to put before the electors one’s achievements during the Parliamentary period soon ending, and to criticise to the full the work of the previous Governments. I consider his policy unsound; his achievements to date, of a negative vi.lue to the welfare of the country; ; and his criticism of previous Govern- : ments largely unjust. Let me deal first with his policy. It ( was, in short, (1) to advance land , settlement, (2) to increase the produc- ; tive powers of the country. This has been the policy of all past Governments, and is unsound at the present time, in that in 99 cases out of 100, by realising his first objective, he will, to a small degree perhaps, realise the second, but not on a financially sound basis. The cost of subdivision and settlement invariably puts the capital value of the land out of all proportion to even its slightly increased productive value. This has been proved in the past, and should be even more apparent now, when one considers the increased costs of fencing and building. On top of this, we have the general drop in the value of land, owing to the general policy of the Labour Party and substantiated by the recent revaluations of numerous properties, made by the same body of Government valuers who had put a higher value on them in the past. It is thus obvious that land settlement by the purchase, subdivision, and resale of properties by the Government cannot be economically sound unless such properties are acquired at below market value. The Minister states that his policy Is not to take the land trom Ihe people, yet to persue his land settlement schemes, so as to have the settlers on a financially sound footing, he would have to take the land at below its market value or sell -it at a loss to the Government. To return to the achievements to date. He appeared, to the man in the street, to be pointing out his ability to run, at a profit, some of the properties purchased by previous Governments; and to have increased the productive powers of hitherto almost barren land. This would have been an undoubted achievement had one not been led to believe that a portion of the wages spent on these works

were paid by the Unemployment Fund and not taken into the consideration of profits shown. Any farmer could increase profits and production from his land if some outside agent paid the wages. In conclusion, I should like to remind him that owing to the policy of the Labour Party as a whole there are large tracts of unproductive country in New Zealand to-day which in the past have provided employment to many, and substantially added to the exports of the Dominion, —Yours, etc ” ACRE. July 29. 1938.