Feilding Star, Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919. LAND AGGREGATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3778, 2 May 1919, Page 2

Feilding Star, Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919. LAND AGGREGATION.

Tins i.s a biibject of «uch great iniportanco that il should bo ho continually kept under tho notice of our Cabinet Ministers and politicians that they will ultimately be forced to tako tho necessary steps in Parliament to put a stop to tho trafficking in land that is essential to New Zealand's development along the only lines that will pay oil' tho national debt. The subject was skimmed over at yesterday's sitting in Pahnerstoii of tho Parliamentary Industries Committee. The matter was dealt with in a hall-heart-ed manner, neither witness nor tho members of Parliament on the Committee seeming to havo given serious thought to tho solution of what is the foremost of tho problems of the day. There is no doubt that the aggregation of land is a growing evil. The Ecilding district bears far too much evidence ol this fact. And it cannot bo thought for a moment that this district is exceptional. It is, unfortunately, only typical of other districts throughout New Zealand which contain nieu who have made money and arc investing it in Naboth's vineyard. The problem of the solution of aggregation is not difficult. Parliament has tho means at hand, ready made, lo stop the traffic—aud that io be machinery of the Land T/ansfer Office, through which every transar lion has to be registered. What Par lianiout should now do is to provide tho Land Transfer Office with a simple regulation to the ell'ect that no person shall own more than a certain value of first, second, or third-class land. Or, either as an additional or alternative K afeguard, Parliament should make the tax so heavy upon all land over tho limited area that those who arc now big holders would bo forced to unload. That something must be done, and done quickly, in the- way of real land reform is becoming more and more evident; and probably it is in this direction that the soldier-voto will next be cast against a Government that spoak K fair on ho subject—hut keeps on doing nothing all the time.