N.Z. LAND VALUES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4811, 20 February 1936, Page 4

N.Z. LAND VALUES

URBAN AND RURAL. ENGLISH COMPARISON. Apprehension for the fate of Australia and New Zealand unless the population is increased was expressed in an interview yesterday by Colonel J. N. Horlick, who with his nephew, Sir Peter Horlick, is visiting New Zealand. “I was wonderfully impressed with the marvellous feed I saw in Taranaki and on the way to Wellington,” hs said. “I saw some very fine herds of Jerseys and Alderneys. It seems a pitv that you cannot get a few more million people out here, and the same applies to Australia. I was in Sydney when the King died, and I can say honestly that the loyalty shown there was greater than, I believe, in London. Sydney' was dead that day, but the same could not be said about London. Must Have More People. “All the same, unless more people are'brought in you are going to lose these countries to Japan. I believe that is our greatest Imperial menace. As a matter of fact, it is not right for one people to hold all these countries unless Tmore use is made of them.” Colonel Horlick was astounded at land prices in New Zealand, and more astounded still when told of the prices paid in boom days, and he admitted that the antipatbv to immigration schemes in New Zealand and Australia was possibly due to the inability to place the extra population under the existing state of affairs. With the heavy outgoings caused by land values, farmers were perhaps not in the position to employ as many men as they should to get the most out of the properties they occupied. In Scotland, he said, part of the Glencoe estate, rough country certainly, but suited for afforestation, containing 19,000 acres, was sold for £SOOO, and 60,000 acres of another estate for £70,000. In the latter casethere was no comparison with the prices charged for New Zealand land of similar quality. As for city and suburban prices in New Zealand, the comparison was still less possible. Within twenty miles of London the ruling price for bousing land was from £250 to £3OO per acre, and with the transport facilities, this was suburban land. He himself had paid £250 per acre for 100 acres at that distance from London.