THE AGITATOR

Grey River Argus, 26 November 1920, Page 3

THE AGITATOR

AN INCIDENT IN PARLIAMENT. The other day, while Mr H. E. Holland was speaking in th« House on. land matters, he drew attention to tne large army of land agents operating this country. The man oji the laud is carrying" a land agency burden thai is -'unmeasured. It is a burden, indeed, that has to be shared between the men on the land and the consumers. There is a host of land agents operating, as we all know, and there is only one way I ican'see to get rid of that evil, and that is by decreeing that all land agency work shall be done through the State— that land shall not be so!<l except to tho State or transferred except from the State. I am making no attack on individual land agents, it is the system I am condemning, not the individual. We find land agents starting in business, and within a year or two they own motor-cars, which no ordinary small working farmer couid, and prospering in a way no man on the land could possibly hope to do. This, I say, is one of the probltenis that we have to face. There are quite a number of other matters connected with thfe land that should t>e trealt with, in a Land Laws Amendment Bill. Instead of laying hands, on the national endowments, we should be seeking to conserve them.- Instead of enacting laws which will make it T'Ossible for land speculators to incTe.-tso In this country, we should "be endeavouring to pass legislation to destroy land speculation . and eliminate thy speculator. Ido not care whether it is the man who is on the land, or tinman who has no land at all: he renders no service to society when he becomes a land speculator. Sir. evorv time the land cahnges hands it docs co at a- vastly increased price from that paid for it by the previous owner. An Hon. Member.— Not in. every case. • Mr Holland. — In almost every ense. Almost invariably the price of iana goes up when it changes hands. That could not be otherwise, because in the process of change it has to provide the money for the upkeep of the land agent, and the money to pay for the thousands and tens of thousands of pounds worth of newspaper advertisements. You can travel the length and breadth of New Zealand, and if you look at the local papers, whether it be in Palmerston North, in tho Wairarapa, In Hawke's Bay, in - Gisborne, m Aucklalnd — anywhere in the North IPland or in the South Island— you will find pages and pages 6f land agents 7 advertisements. Mr McNicoll. — And Greymouth papers. ' ' ,Mr Holland.— Yes, and Greymoutn papers, and I expect, Pahiatua and Daamevirke papers as well. You find pages and pages of advertisenients in connection with tho land agency business. It is not the land agent that pays for those advertisements. It la i thte man who are on tho land, it is the community that consumes the products of the land, who have to pay. Part of our work is to get rid of the land agent. Mr Nicoll.— Get lid of the agitator. Mr Holland.— Yes, if we could get rid of agitators like the honourable member we would be doing service to j the community. Gentlemen who edit «uiti-Labour papers, amd sptend their time in writing silly effusions against Labour in the columns of those papers, figuring in that way as the paid agitators of the exploiting class, render no service to the commupnity. I agrfce with the honourable memffer tiliat if wo could get rid of that class of agitator we should benefit the community. An Hon. Member.— -What about >Tio - asfltator who is causing trouble every day? ' . ' ' " Mr Holland. — That is the kind of affitator I am sneaking about.

Fiji must bo given credit for a spirited attempt to deal with the cost ol living problem. The island dependanproposes to abolish nearly all the customs dutics 3 sacrificing nearly £2y,O<JU per annum, and ot make up the nionev by increasing the tax on the higher grades of income^ The proposal is a pratical recognition of the part played by indirect taxation in increasing tho cost of living.

A mean theft is reported from a. motor car in Greymouth., and the public arc warned . against purch'assing the proceeds of it. f Mr H. O'jSeill local manager for Gundcrson's Proprietory, Ltd., left his car at the rear entrance of the Albion Hotel, and during his absence some vandals cnr!cavoure.d to got away with the machine, but ran it into a gutter. They then wTcnehcd away the spot light and. broke the connections, also taking three, tubes from under the car. The police now have the matter in hand.

As intimated in our telegrams yes-.to-day and to-day, the Government has decid*:! to extend to December Kith, the time during which sums may he invested in the six million loan the Government is issuing; for soldier settlement. There arc a number »• Chambers of Commerce and - financial institutions iendeavourmg to raise "the full total by voluntary means, without the State having to have recourse t> the compulsory provisions of the! law relating to such loans. As the money is for the soldiers all who can invest should do so . voluntarily »t 0:1 cc, since. the money will go for the benefit o fthe Avhole * country and Avilf be to 'the advantage of everybody. To invest in this loan is a very practical form of patriotism, and doubtless .many will not miss the opportunity af-