CHEAP LAND AND CHEAP FOOD

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 50, 28 August 1911, Page 2

CHEAP LAND AND CHEAP FOOD

to IKB EDITOft. Sir,— Your correspondent "New Zea> lander" in this evening's Post has gdne to a little trouble in comparing the Ctis* toms tariffs of Australia and New Zea« land, and endeavours to show by surface reasoning that food taxes help to feed the workers of a country. "New Zealander" appears to be particularly anxious to maintain our great flour milling industry, with the aid of the £1 per ton on imported fleur, for the benefit of th© [ Workers of the Dominion. Now, here is a poser for him 1 There are 80,000 tons of flour used in this country annually with a protection duty of £1 per ton, or a total of £80,000 per annum. -The wages , paid to the people engaged in the flour ! milling industry amounts to £53,000 approximately. Now, "New Zeft'landef," whore does the missing £27,000 go to i after the miller has his wages bill paid for him by the public? If "New Zealander" gotx to a» little more trouble to examine our protected industries, he will get a surprising shook. No, "New Zealander," the reason why our people are moving to Australia is because it is a vast country with . plSuty of good, cheap land, and New Zealand is a spiall country with expensive land. Our ocdnomio salvation certainly lies in cheap food and cheap land, and the way to obtain the desirable result is by removing taxes that make commodities expensive and taxing fictitiSus land values instead, so as to compel the holders of land (town oreoun. try) to make, the best possible Use of it, or sell it to somebody who would. I might remind "New Zealander" that a man has to spend a fortune at the pre« Bent time t6 obtain a suitable Bite before he starts his business at all. With cheap land for our^ people (employers and em- i ployees) with cheap food and everything else cheap obtained from cheap land wo i would be fully protected.— l am, etc., ANOTHER NEW ZEALANDKtt. 26th August, 1911.