LAND SPECULATION

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 140, 16 June 1922, Page 4

LAND SPECULATION

NORTH AND SOUTH COMPARED,

Instances have come under the notice of the Bank of New Zealand of farmers, \vh«. paid unreasonably high prices for land, having been obliged t 0 forfeit tlva portion of purchase money (often running into thousands of pounds) which they had paid, .and te hand:- back the property to the vendors. Other vendors have written off large sums due to them, to induce the purchasers to remain on the land, and further losses, it is feared, will have to bo faced before bedrock is touched. However, the chairman of the Bank, Mr. George Elliot, assured shaveholders to-day that "none of these losses, however, naed occasion alarm is to the stability of the country, because the proportion of failures will be small. The productive capacity of. the country will, on the whole, not be reduced. Although in some cases properties have deteriorated, an others the carrying capacity of the hndi and tho quality of t.he stack h;y • been improved. In the long run, ti; Dominion will b,. i^ a better position for having been purged of unwholesome conditions. Values must be based on what land caai produce in competition with other countries in the markets of the world. Our geographical position, the high, rate of wages, and the high price of land are material disadvantage* under which we labour. Land in many instances is helcl in. larger holdings than, permits of it being utilised to the fullest advantage. By judicious subdivision settlers could be largely increased with little or no further expenditure on roads and railways. In all these districts stock was- looking well, and the recent rise in prices was proving a source of much encouragement. In some parts of Ofcafo and Southland he found that farmers who had paid attention to such minor crop 3as peas and grass eeed had been exceedingly successful, while the wheat and barley wops were very satisfactory. The results of irrigation in Central Otago impressed him as affording reason to look for a good future for that district when the application of water to the land is more systematically carried out. He has come back wit.li a firm belief that the Southern farmers— ■except those few who are burdened with land bought at high, prices—will tide over their present difficulties, and that there is. a, good future for them. WHERE VALUES WERE NOT INFLATED. ; Mr. Elliot-held that the low rate of interest which ruled in the Dominion, and- the readiness with which vendors, accepted small deposits on account of; purchase money on. farm property, weiej important factors in abnormally raisin"' land values. The South Island has not suffered to anything like the same extent as the North, a* land values therai were not inflated: to tne same degree. A competent observer, of high standing,, informed- the_ directors that, when travelling recently through Canterbury 1 Otago, and Southland, he found the' country looking verj well, with plenty of feed and promising turnip crops. Wheat had generally been harvested in 'excellent condition, though excessively wet weather had caused a good deal of damage to this orop in the most southern part of the country. He reported that the oat crop, which was of so much importance to the farmers in Southland, had been heavy.