THE STATE AS LANDLORD.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2741, 8 April 1916, Page 3

THE STATE AS LANDLORD.

Sir,—The following example of how the State, as landlord, treats its tenants, proves. I think, that in some respects our New Zealand land laws are not : much ahead of what obtained ill Ireland in the. earlier'part of last centurv. " : |; - These are tho facts':'— A'tcnant lipids 231.'.acres undor a 2lTyears' endowment lease, at an annual rental of £2 Cs. 2d. With. tho exception of about 12 acres, which with mnch labour tho tenant lias stumped and-ploughed, tho land is steep birch .country, on the shady side. 'Anyone who lias had; experience of this kind of-country-in the district •■■wliere

this lease'lies-'knows that no treatment has yet-been discovered to prevent such land in the course of a few years being overwhelmed with fern.

Tho lease is about to expire, but the tenant is offered a renewal for another 21 years at an annual rental of £11 lis., or rather more than four times tho old rent; and this for land tho bulk of which nothing can stop from rapidly deteriorating. This is a case of a man with a large family, who, as it is, owing to the small returns from his own holding, has to work out for part of tho'-year in order to make two ends meet. It Is only reasonable to expect that such a man should receive every consideration and encouragement from tile Government. Instead of that, he is rack-rented.in a, way one believed was only possible in Ireland a generation or two ago. Such a state of things, showing as it does some of the evils of landlordism, whether of the State 1 or the individual, calls for a very radical alteration, at any rate ill tho case of the smaller agricultural and pastoral holdings. No endowed institution can be expected to flourish which derives its income from such a grinding down of the small man. If, moreover, it is the policy of the Government to increase the revenue of the country by such altogether disproportionate increases in the unimproved j valuation of small holdings, it is common knowledge that they are letting a much more well-to-do class go practically scot free in the matter of taxation.— I am, etc., R. D. FELL: Nikau Bay, Pelorus Sound.