ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1913. LAND AGGREGATION ONCE AGAIN.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 71, 26 March 1913, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1913. LAND AGGREGATION ONCE AGAIN.

When Mr Massey's attention was first drawn'to the aggregation of land holdings lie was inclined! to ' poohpooh" its importance , and declared that although such aggregation did possibly, occur sometimes the evil' was only an occasional one, and was not widespread. Since then ,> the Prime Minister has visited' Canterbury, and has not only, had to admit that instances of land aggregation are. more numerous than he had imagined, but,lias announced his intention of dealing with the evil—in what particular way, however, lie has not made public. We referred the other day at some length, to the whole question of aggregation, but make no apology, such is the importance of the> question, for returning to the subject, being moved to do so by the publication: in the. Wellington Evening Post of some very extraoixliriary facts and figures relating to the way in which land is .being aggregated in the Akiteo district of the Wellington province. One particularly flagrant case quoted loj our contemporary is that of certain lands owned in the county of Akiteo,. which lies on the East Coast between Pahiatua. and the sea., by Messrs W. A. and R. R. Burling, who, appear on the county valuation rolls asl owning, "either jointly or in the name- of W. A. Burling, 16,775 acres of freehold land. According to Government" valuations made in 1907 the unimproved value (that is, the value as bare land.) was something over £38,000. At to-day's valuation it is estimated that the figures "would be at least doubled." The Post gives a detailed list of the Burling holdings, in which .figure two parcels of; pre-existing freeholds and at least one holding that had but recently been converted1 from Crown leasehold' to-, 'freehold. Altogether three converted 'Orowji leases figure in the list bfif^blie1 freeholds! owned by the/luoky Messrs Burling. This, says our conteniporary^ means that there has been reaggregation, and recent aggregation, and that it is doubleedged in that it includes not only old freeholds, but new ones which, under a bad leasehold system,-the State had parted with. Summarised, the position of these Burling lands is that an area of 16,775 acres of freehold) has been aggregated, an area which on the basis of a living>rea of 500 acres would accommodate about 33 settlers, or with their families, a population oii the soil of about 165 souls, without counting dependent labor. The reaggregation includes at least three former Crown leaseholds each of moderate area. , Thus,; the small holdings which \it was tqe policy of the State to create axe being; inbuilt into the fabric of a large estate. And there is more aggregation, to come, for Mr R: R, Burling still holds existing State leaseholds. A specially bad feature about the whole business is that, exclusive of contract labor, less than ten men have permanent employment on these lands, which for the most part are good fattening country, proof of this being afforded by the large drafts of "fats" sent over the hills to .the railway at regular intervals.

The Post's special investigator gives instances of how the Burling monopoly is,injuriously affecting the people of the township of Pongaroa, th© county centre.' Th© Burling monopoly simply chokes the progress of the place. The investigator says:— . Pongaroa township is cramped in two ways. Cross one of the main streets, and -you are in Burling territory. Grb some miles out, and you are still in Burling territory. The settler /who would like to settle on the.Burning bade country, and who would bring progress to the township ; and district, cannot get there. Likewise, the Pongaroa tradesman or resident who would like to buy a section on the other side of the street cannot do so unless he pays a- price equal to thirty or fifty times the original cost of the land. At'present, two or three shops and one or two other, structures have been erected on that side of the street. A local resident states thai; he pays a i-ent of £1 per acre per annum for the use of a small unimproved horse paddock. He sells ajittle land here at a big price," said a Pongaroa tradesman, and then goes out to the back and buys up a Jot more. He Las been reaggregating ever since I came here. His holding is a brake on the progress of the whole district. And he does not cultivate, nor employ much labor.""

t, not^ er disquieting fact is that Mr K. It. Burling holds two Crowm (education endowment) leases, and a small grazing rum;- and a Mrs Mary Burling, apparently a relative, f^°™? r moh r««- The Post gives a lengthy account, with dates, of the circumstances under which this extraordinary aggregation of land has been so successfully engineered by the ■Burimgs. It is a narrative which *™ r£? eiv!e %* earnesffc attention or Mr Massey in his capacity of Minister for Lands. In a vigorously worded leading article our coptemporary reviews and1 comments upon the tacts as elicited by its investigator, concluding its remarks as follows :—

, A feature of this reaggregation is tnat it touches recent da.tes within the last two years, and that in that

period small areas of converted Crown leaseholds as well as substantial areas of freehold have found their way into the one ownership.. Thus, three small areas, none exceeding 300 acres, part of a subdivision by a well-meaning Government whose object was closer settlement, are now already back within the fabric of a big estate. Moreover, the same ownership is deriving the unearned; increment of township site values by small sales at one end of its property, while it is buying up run lands at the other. We direct attention to (this colossal land monopoly as an object-lesson in the futility of our land laws, both as regards leasehold and freehold. Lately there lias been a call for concrete evidence of the exist-, enoe of reaggregation. In reply, we submit this case _as a sample reaggregation that is huge, persistent, and double-edged. If any further proof is required, then to demonstrate the existence' of wellknown facts has ceased to -be a

human possibility. No doubt, upon inquiry there would be found to exist dozens of similar cases, of land aggregation' as that for the exposure or which the Post deserves the thanks of the community. But this one instance is surely enough to make Mr Massey sit down and think hard what he is going to do to put a stop to a land system under which such things caii legally occur. He has just concluded a long electioneering campaign in Canterbury, and has surely by this time been surfeited with the banquets which, when they were given to his predecessors, were the subject of so much derision by the then Leader of th© Opposition, and should have found or should find or make time to think out and! draft legislation, to be introduced next session, which may have tho effect of thwarting the greed of the land monopolists.' We have said more than once'that we do not desire to see the Massey Ministry replaced by an extreme Radical and Socialist Labor Administration. We still hold that view; but wo can tell Mr Massey straight out that lie has got to face this question of land monopoly and deal with it firmly, or he will seriously imperil his chances of returning to office and power at the next general election.