LAND REFORM.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1925, Page 3

LAND REFORM.

(‘‘Lyttelton Times”) Mr Lloyd Beorge is without a compeer when a political crusade is ue.essary. He is now engaged m a campaign designed to make the land at Home available to the people and- he is conducting it in a manner that has hampered the defensive measures of his opponents. 11l the I a.st the vifort-. to efic.vt land reform have been chain.tris.ll by violent assaults upon the policy unci praetko of the landholders. They have liven held up as a class ouiity of almost criminal .neglect ol l-iitdr duty, and the bitterness id tho attack generally has been sufficient to make it inctl'ci tivc. The Lilteml Leader. however, lots avoided mat sort of thing. He has based his campaign on facts ''hit'll his opponents are finding difficult to explain away. The ccoiijiniie position shows the need lor action and even such Conservative stalwarts as Mr J. L. Garv Tn. editor - the ‘‘Observer.'' admit that the challenge put out by Afr Lloyd Beorge must he taken seriously. I*„til recent years the landholders

were in a ] osition to exercise considerable "eight in political circles, and that made it difficult, if not impassible. to effectively reform the land system of the Abither Country. While the country enjoyed industrial prosperity and unemployment was plentiful the retrogression of Britain as an agricultural country did not give cause for general anxiety, hut the continued depression in trade, the prospect of a slow recovery, and widespread unemployment have combined to emphasise the importance of opening up the land for those able to work it efficiently. This is the pivot of Mr Lloyd George’s policy, the gradual change in the occupancy of the agricultural land of

Great Britain. For a. century or more the population has been drifting toward- tho industrial tent res lured by the prospect of remunerative employment or forced by the difficulty of obtaining n holding in the country undor conditions that gave a reasonable prospect of success. Britain possesses the ('lily landless peasantry in Europe and the policy outlined hv the Liberal leader is designed to open the way for these agricultural labourers, and for all others who can show that they are qualified to undertake the work. The idea underlying the policy is the creation of a “ladder,” by which the enterprising labourer can rise from the bottom to the top. By this mentis it-

' is hoped to effect something like a revolution in rural conditions, to recreate the peasantry, long the pride of of the land, and make the country more self-contained with regard to foodstuffs. The difficulties In the way are great and the opposition to any radical change in the system of land tenure will he dogged, hut economic pressure may force the position. Depressed trade, an army of unemployed and the annual expenditure of millions of pounds to hold off destitution must compel public attention to any and every means that may help to solve the problems, and land reform is certainly one of them. There are signs that already widespread interest has been aroused. When •sonic thousands of people will assemble in a public place and stand for two hours in the rain to hear Air Lloyd George expound his policy of land reform, it is because they tire deeply interested in the matter. For the opponents to cry “nationalisation” will not he enough. Deep-rooted ills need radical treatment and it may lie that reconstruction can only he effected on the hold lilies advocated, with all his old-time fire, by the most doughty fighter in British politics to-day.