The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, October 22, 1943. LAND COURT AND COMMITTEES.

Grey River Argus, 22 October 1943, Page 4

The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, October 22, 1943. LAND COURT AND COMMITTEES.

Viewed meantime by landed interests ’with, suspicion, not to say antipathy, the land sales legislation now taking effect may be expected in due time to allay any reasonable misgiving. The personnel of the Court and of the several. District Committees, now announced, should alone go to show that justice will be tempered with every due consideration for all parties to projected land transactions. It has been argued by large land holders that the Act is unnecessary, or rather that legislation already on the Statute Book could have been adapted for the purpose of providing land for settlement of ex servicemen. It has, however, been shown by none of the critics that in the past any large scale thing of the sort was feasible without the gross exploitation of those particular parties who were not only the ones most in peed of land, but were the ones most lacking iii capital to procure land. The new legislation is an ad hoc adjustment abundantly warranted by the fact that after this war settlement must’be extended numerically far more than after the last war; that while supply of land may relatively be less, demand will relatively be far greater; and . that there thus are , present all) those elements which our history shows to constitute the inevitable impetus for a boom in land values. With many normal avenues for the investment of fluid capital

now closed, the danger is all the greater that such capital would . be concentrated on broad acres as | well as urban areas. People are in some centres wondering already why aliens have been able since the outbreak to obtain a grip on so much landed property. New Zealand’s future, for all that may be said in favour of secondary industrial expansion, must rest largely with pastoral production and industries incidental to it. It is a sound instinct that as large a percentage of people as possible shall be identified with the land, but this is impossible unless the average size of holdings is definitely reduced, and the number of holders largely increased. Likewise is it desirable to cheek land monopoly in urban areas. Most of all is it imperative to prevent land needed for production being loaded with excessive values, which inevitably must retard development of industry, production, and real wealth. The procedure laid down, along with the aim of the Court and the Committees, will avert hitch or delay on all normal or reasonable transactions, frequently without any formal hearings. It is only questionable ones which will entail examination of the parties. Legal charges in connection with the new procedure will Ire only nominal, and in that respect there may be an improvement. It is by the test of actual experience that the reform must be judged and considering the procedure of land boarcis and other tribunals hitherto in vogue, there is every reason to look for a definite improvement in the use and distribution of land throughout the country.