A LABOUR LAND POLICY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 26, 31 January 1907, Page 6

A LABOUR LAND POLICY.

Tbe Labour Conference sitting at Sydney is now considering (according to cabled advices published to-day) some very far-reaching questions of land reform which must presently come within the scope of practical politics in every Stato in tfos Commonwealth. For abuse of the freehold we need not go so far afield as, 6ay, Ireland, for near nt hand Australia offers nearly as shocking an example Take New South Wales, wher© thousands of square milec of the richest territory was "dummied" by the squatting monopolists at twenty shillings an acre, and are now ringfenced sheep runs instead of wheat fields ot grazing and dairy farms. Of the millions of money bo Taised thero is but littlo to show, for it was heated ns vevenuo instead of capital, and was squandered as though each year would bring a return of the golden flood. So the Labour PaTly formulate as tho first essential in their policy— "lmmediate cessation of the sale of Crown lauds." Then, to prevent a recurrence of tha evilg of ths past, and t6 provide an equal chance for those who would live on and by tho land, it is proposed that "no peTson shall be entitled to acquire more than a living area." Other points in this Labour programme include preferential rights to acquire land first to the landless, and after to email holders; remission of rent for first five yeara, provided improvements to a liko valuo are effected; reappraiseinent of lease once every twenty ycare ; a graduated land tax > on estates ov.Sr the valuo of £5000 unimproved; compulsory resumption of private estates — for close hottlement— on land tax valuation, plus ten per cent.> with -rnluo of improvements added, and advances to selectors up to two-thirds of the valuo of improyomenta. It will be noted that this policy absolutely eliminates the freehold; tho workers of Australia havo learned theiT lesson. For tho rest, while there is little in it that is new to tho people of this country, the conservative classes in Australia may be expected, through the journals which represent them, to cry with united voice that consummation of tha land policy of the Labour Party would bring the State to cureless ruin.

The total clearances through the Wellington Clearing House of tho New Zealand banta for the four weeks ended 28th January were £4,537,688, as compared with £4,368,357 for tho corresponding period of 1906. We aro informed that steps are being taken in Wellington to form a company | to establish gasworks at Miramar.