CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 2 September 1919, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE PRICE OF LAND

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—-Your recent leader re the above, together with the several warnings from responsible men, ought to . make the' fanners of this country, and especially of Taranaki, think a bit. Much is heard nowadays of the high, cost of living, and it seemsi a problem on whom to lay the blame. As a (remedy '■. a great cry is arising for. "greater production," and that appeal .is chiefly directed to the! farmer. The j majority of dairy /farmers at present are working 10 to 12 hours a day, and in spite of this they are asked to produce more to help meet'the heavy taxation with, which the country is faced. -"Greater .production" is,v6f course, the, one tiling needful. Yet some farmers (?), pursuing the ;. : get-rich-quick policy, are mindful only of their own interests. ' Such men are. not farmers at all, bui , out-and-out land speculators, and, working in con^ junction with the land agents, are do^ ing, or will do eventually j more harm to this country than all .'our Labor agitators-,put together.- Of what: bene- : fit is it to the community if a man makes a thousand or two by a deal in land? Poes he increase production .?; He increases his banking account j arid leaves someone else to do the increase of production. The speculator toils uot, Neither does he spin (except it be in motor cars/, yet .the real producer (the dairy farmer) cannot hope to be Arrayed like unto one of these. It is high tmie men woke up to the fact that land is, or ought to be, held in sacred trust; The great burden of debt j under which this country is suffering through defence of a righteous £ause is--not going to be made lighter by wild gambling in land! Neither will such methods solve the problem of the high cost of living. Let working men think, and thinking men work and pull together at the coming, election and elect men whose first interests are their country's, men who will make!; an;: effort to bring about a law to stop, as humanly as it is possible to, stoi>, gambling, in land. Let a law be made that] an'owner of land be compelled to obtain a permit .from a Land Board. before such an owner can dispose of his property, and such permit to b© granted > only after satisfactory reasons have been placed before the board: Tf some such, legislation was passed then land gamblers would probably be compelled to seek pastures new., and I would suggest they\ehter the field of "' 'greater production^." which, in plain English,; means "harder work*" — I am, etc:, , I-.-:" -:,.:. ..; . : ' J. newey. I Okaiawa. Aim. 29.