AN AMERICAN'S OPINIONS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 23 September 1914, Page 2

AN AMERICAN'S OPINIONS

LAND TENURES

"Freehold is the only system that1 is permanent, but it must be regulated in the interests of society." . So said Professor Ely to a Lyttelton Times reporter on Saturday when referring to the subject of land aggregation. The Professor^ who is head of the University of Wisconsin, and has specialised in economics, is on a visit to Christchurch. During an all too brief visit to New Zealand he has been interested mostly in land and labor problems. '•'We call New Zealand the sociological laboratory of the world.," he said, "and that aspect interests me." [ The graduated land tax, which lias never been applied in America, lias appealed to the visitor as a very likely solution of the aggregation problem.

It must have a great influence if continued logically. America has no such tax., Originally the land was divided into 180 acre blocks, but a man could buy as much land as he pleased, and there was no tax on alien ownership. "It is. the graduation and the higher tax on alien ownership," he said, "that interests me particularly. My idea is that we have to come to the freehold every where, but it must be a freehold limited and regulated. The freeholder has a stake in the community more than anyone else." Professor Ely instanced England as a place where there ; were bad effects (social and political rather than economic.) of large ownership. He advocated a very large number of landowners who had an economic holding sufficient to maintain a family; a second class with middle-sized holdings; and a few large landholders (of the right sort, and public spirited men), to try experiments to introduce improvements which the small holder could not introduce. Wherever there were no large landowners at all the small holder was likely to suffer on that account. To some extent, he admitted. State farms could do the work, but it should be possible for a man to re?p the fruit of his enterprise. He considered that 2000 acres, however, w?.s a large farm. Incidentally Professor Ely touched on the state of Ireland, which "is now settled in numerous "economic, holdings," sufficient-fora family. Everywhere the people were more prosperous than they used to be., Merchants, laborers, tenants, all -agreed that the country was never so prosperous. Touching on the labor problem and compulsory arbitration, another new departure to an American, Professor Ely said, that it was good to recognise a social interest in industry. It was not a matter merely between employer and employee. He prefaced anything he was asked to say on the Arbitration Act with the remark that it was based on a very limited observation. The result of the Act was not a complete success, but it might be the beginning of better things. "Obviously it has prevented strikes," he remarked. However, the system was based on .compromise, and that ..could not be permanent. Wages would keep rising and rising until it would not be possible to pay wages . He did not think that any satisfactory principle had been elaborated on which to base arbitration.

Professor Ely was asked whether he regarded a, board of industrial investigation as a valuable institution. He! replied that Wisconsin had an indus- j trial Commission, or permanent Board ; of Trade to investigate the cost of i living and so on. It had great power to bring about adjustments, and especially it was a board to make awards for industrial accidents. A permanent commission of three, with a representative of mercantile interests and labor , interests, with a third adjudicator, would be. of real value to the country.

On the subiect of land Professor Ely said that he had been greatly impressed with the great natural opportunities of New Zealand and the absence of a severe climate. To one coming from Wisconsin, where the ice froze two or three feet thick in the winter, and where all the stock had to be housed, New Zealand seemed favored indeed. He had admired the Dominion as a dairying • country, possessing very fine breeds of cows.