A SOCIALIST LAND POLICY

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 447, 1 October 1919, Page 6

A SOCIALIST LAND POLICY

Mr. Kod Ross in criticising the Labor Party's Land Policy _oems incapable of realising the fundamental difference between factory and farm. Under factory conditions it is generally true that the larger the concern and the greater the division of labor the more economical will be the management. With farming this is only true to a very limited extent and it is a fact that as farms increase in si_o a point is soon arrived at where a further increase in size means a loss of efficiency and v great increase in tho labor of supervision. For (...ample, while it i* true that grain growing can be most efficiently carried out on fairly large farms where tho .paddocks Wo tot too small, it is also tru._ that on very large farms the teams lc.e too much tinio ■ {."ing to and from their work. This applies with much greater force to dairying. Cows always do best in fairly small herds, and to give the best results must have tho minimum of walking. Where the farm exceeds a few

hundred acres much °t Ihe feed is used, by the cows to supply energy instead cf milk. On the smaller farms, moreover, t-iie fanner has a more intimate knewledgo of the cows, he can cult out the unprofitable cows more easily and the cows ar© quieter and more contented. Hven in sheep farming which is considered by some to be purely a "bigman's game,"' the small farmer will secure a higher banking percentage than his large scale neighbour. Mr. Rod lloss says "Fvery modern agricultural invention is % increasingly rendering small scale production on the land impossible." 1 would like to knou what Mr. Jtoss calls small scale production. Of course we can all see. that the invention of the three-furrow plough has made ..pade culture or singlefurrow work absurd. My own opinion on t')e matter is that modern inventions tend to eliminate thc wage worker on the land and to make it possible for farms of moderate ~ize to ho efficiei.it.ly worked by one family. In Canterbury thc extension of th© Lake Coleridge hydro-electric scheme is making it possible for comparatively small farms to be thoroughly equipped with up-to-date labor-saving machinery and there is no reason why electric power should not be available for nearly every farm in N'cw Zealand. The principle of Co-operation or Collectivism can be applied to agriculture in Miuiy ways, besides the -upply of power. Such machinery as drills anil tlueshiug machines arc Used collectively to-day and can and sometimes are owned collectively. The tame applies to shearing sheds. Mr. floss also sa.v.s "Thc old stup.id method of indiscriminate production ito continue, ihe lanuer is to retail,' the power of deciding the particular kind of produce his is to effect. ... At alt.V time the farmers might all decide to grow oats and no wheat or the reverse." This is not a necessary result of the private occupancy and use of laud. During the war the Appeal Boards made if a condition for exempting certain iarmcr. that they -hould grow a given sire*, cf wheat. In tho Rame way it would be competent for the controlling authority to make it a condition for the occupancy and use of land that -ertain crops slu/uld be grown. I don't tliii.>k the State is the proper authority to control agriculture. Sate Control tends to bureaucracy aud red tape. The prcper fuuctiou of the State is to act ;•.-• a _■■.-betwren from producer to _on..uiuc., leaving uiy coniiol of production to local bodies possessing! an intimate knowledge of local cOßdi-rtbu-. Any attempts to apply the theories of doctx-inaire Socialism to agriculture are doomed to failure, and I. in common with th e other Socialist farmers, am pleased that the Labor Party has realised this. As Mr. Kobertson has pointed out, a system of State Farming ou a large scale only perpetuates the wages system and does not ensure that the worker shall have th c full product of nis labor. There are no practical difficulties in the way of assessing the unearned increment on land. Land is to-day always valued separately as regards capital and unimproved value, and it is imt impossible to assess the value of an occupiers' improvements. The State can control production by becoming the solo purchaser of all farm products and by entering into contracts in advance with the producers, through the local bodies, fr.T thp growth of certain areas of various crops. Li 1 his way the interests ef the consumer will b e protected without reducing the producer to /thi* lsv-l of a wage-slave as;' Mr. Eodfiloss advocates.— C. MOEGAN Wi_.-_l!?-Mg,