SOUTH AFRICA’S LAND

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 65, 21 August 1944, Page 2

SOUTH AFRICA’S LAND

PROBLEM.

CHARTER FOR AGRICULTURE. Far-reaching recommendations regarding agricultural reorganisation iin South Africa were contained in a report issued recently by the Reconstruction Committee of the* South African Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The report has been referred by the Government to the Social and Economic Planning Council for comment. The report, dealing with the present position of farming in South Africa, says that it employes 64 per cent, of the population, but since 1934 has not produced more than 13 per cent, of the national income. The sum of £457,000,000 represents the importance of the Union’s agricultural industry. This total is made up as follows: — Value of farm land belonging to Europeans, £300,000,000; Native Reserves, £30,000,000; value of stock on farms, £107,000,000; value of movable assets, £20,000,000. 4 4 Economically, ” says the report, 4 4 agricultural efficiency has not kept pace with industrial development, but we can have no prosperous South African nation if agriculture is not brought back to its rightful place in the national economy.’ r The Reconstruction Committee’s recommendations included: 1. The extension of the control board system to all main farm pioducts. The elimination of unwarranted speculation in food and food products. The curtailment of distributive profit margins by fixing maximum consumer prices. The public ownership of food processing industries.

2. The establishment of a Bureau of Farm Values and the expansion of the existing Land Bank into a National Mortgage Loan Bank with the sole right of granting loans against farm mortgages. 3. The nationalisation of land on a voluntary basis. The report states that State intervention, which it is expected will have to continue after the war, can best be applied by public bodies acting nationally. It is argued that only by exercising control from producer to consumer can the past violent fluctuation in prices be eliminated and the needs of both sections be met. Ultimately processing industries should be Stat® owned or at least owned and operated by public bodies. Food processing is a national matter that should be dictated by the needs of the people. Control boards should producer-consum-er boards with optional representation for the distributive trade' and processing industries.

The committee suggests a Bureau of Farm Values as an impartial scientific institute to assess the true value of every piece of land used or usable for pastoral, agricultural, and forestry production. It believes that once a sound valuation has been established, the bureau w'ould indirectly exert great influence in checking over-capitalisation. The committee goes on to state that the only really effective way of checking the inflation of land values and excessive mortgage indebtedness is to give a National Mortgage Loan Bank the sole right of granting loans. It is pointed out that the State is already bondholder to the extent of £30,000,000, representing 30 per cent, of the total mortgage indebtedness. The committee agrees that the nationalisation of land is 4 4 unsound and impracticable,” but says that State ownership on a voluntary basis deserves study. Land would be issued under perpetual lease, which would give the tenant, together with his right to bequeath leasehold, most of the advantages of ownership and would enable the State to safeguard land by such means as the prohibition of /monoculture, laying down a maximum number of animals allowed for a farm, and ensuring that erosion works are maintained in good order. Rentals would be based on average commodity prices over a stipulated period. The committee claims that the security thereby given to the farmer would discourage exploitive but encourage constructive farming.

The committee also says that while municipal markets play an important part in feeding the people, their organisation has not kept pace with modern demands and it is essential ,for their control to be transferred from the Provinces to the Central Government. Such a step would necessitate an amjendment of the Act of Union. If municipalities are not prepared to conduct retail markets or networks of markets, at fixe! prices only slightly higher than wholesale prices, a special non-profit-making public corporation should be formed. This report has been welcomed by farming members of Parliament and by the Board of the National Veld Trust, which says: 44 Viewed as a whole, the results of transplanting the recommen- ’ xtions of the report into practice will go far towards achieving those main objectives for which the National Veld* Trust stands.”