LAND VALUES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15645, 26 June 1914, Page 10

LAND VALUES.

Sir,—lt is hard to make comparisons between the prices of land in one country and another. One may have the advantage of close proximity to a large market. Ai,other may have land which, aversely, is of higher fertility, or may have more of such land. The soil of one country may have been cropped for years—aye, centuries—thus necessitating tho use of large Quantities of fertilising material to produce annual crops in payable quantities. On the other hfnd, manures may only be a comparatively small item of expenditure in another country. Especially is this so in "young" countries holding'large tracts of virgin tend and land which has not yet been " worked out," The groatest factor of all, however, is the difference in climate, which will practically counterbalance the wlioje of the above-mentioned advantages. The colder countries are subject to long months of cold and wet weather, when no growth takes place. Consider what this moans in England. All fat cattle are housed and hand-fed at least fTom October to April inclusive, the " etores" gradually beincj brought in to the yards as space permits by selling the "fats." The"stores" will receive some

hay and swedes before they ary brought in, say from Christmas omvaras. Even iu the summer fattening cattle receive their daily allowance of cake and meal. Take sheep, again. When lambing commences the owns require artificial feeding, otherwise » big mortality in lambs is the mult. How many aw# of swedes axe fed off in fattening {sheep e-ach winter,, and. what is tile cost of raising and tending this crop? Ir. addition they receive daily a feed of hay, meal, com, etc, I have seen srow lying on tho ground for weeks. Losses through this ha>'e bean J.eavy, sad the added expense of feeding ha» been very high. Working Lowes are stabled and stall-fed for two-thirds of the year, and the work of' the horse is often interfered with, and tinjo lost through inclamant weather. In fact, in cold climes, expense, due to weather conditions, meets one everywhere. Ia some, countries, again, excessive heat and long droughts arc experienced, tie evils of such being too well known in our neighbouring colonies to | need elaboration. Weigh these conditions with the equable climate of New Zealand, i where growth, at any rate in the North ! Island, is practically never entirely at a standstill, where hand-feeding is at a minimum, and the most expensive outbuildings on .1 dairy farm are the cowbails. As sonic correspondents quota prices of land at Home, I think the following figures relating to farm land in : North Wales may prove interesting: —My I father held about 260 acres of mixed farm ° land, suitable for sheep (fattening and pedigree), cattle (fattening), arable land •and orchard, the average rent running into •something over £1 per acre. Bojne of tho meadow land ww worth £2 10s to £3 per acre per annum, whilst some was valued at 10s, or less, per acye. The owner of the estate, of which crar farm was a part, disposed of & number of outlying farms just two years ago. The County Council bought a number of farms aggregating 864J acres at nearly £20 per . acre,, under the Small Holdings Act. All the' farms submitted _ for salo were what may be termed mixed farms, and are served by good macadamised, (not New Zealand back- : block) roads. Most are within two miles, and many within one mile of rail and market town. Each, is provided with a house, and necessary outbuildings of stone or bricTi, and roofed with slate, The farms are out up into a number of fields ~y good stout hedges, and are well proided with shelter. . W.E.W.

Sir,—Tho value of all land, labour, and almost everything in the Dominion is entirely dependent on tho price our exports fetch in dvoßeos markets. While these prices ara hign, we boom along and read daily. of fresh awards, easier hours, higher pay, and increased value of lands. Let'these oversea prices drop (say) 25 per cent, only, and all would do changed. A large proportion of our commnnity would either have to leave the country or starve, The bottom would be knocked out of the boom. If a further (all iu prices took place, land would be unsalable and award® useless, (or there would be very little work to do.' This shows that it is not our community that is of any value, but overseas communities. If you put too much taxation on land, you discourage production, our exports | fall, and a similar state of things would arieo. If we had a largo population engaged in industries of various sorts, matters would be slightly easier, but we have no chance of that as long as our labour unrest oontinues. A single.tax would make matters worse, for it would close down the few industries wo have. The chief difficulty wo have is our parliament. As long as two parties are struggling for power, the real advance and good of tho Golony is a secondary consideration. If we stopped payment of members, wo would not have so many candidates In the (laid, and wo would get the truth from those who did stand. It is too soon now to talk of this, but a time may como when it will be debated. A time may also como when politioian* will give up abusing each other. The euro for this lies with tho electors tbemselvqg, Tho land of this Dominion produce# an annual incomo of some HO millions sterling for tho community, and this income pays all the taxation and maintains tho whole of the people. It pays all the wages of labour and supports tho towns and nil that is in thorn. What would tho effect bo if our present system of taxation, which has boon devised to try and build up a nation, Wore suddenly altered to « 80 per oent. tax o« all our oxporU ? Which would suffer most, the towns or the country? It would bo tho death of the towns. They would bo committing suiqide if they voted for it, Rk&tooam.

Sir,— do not think there is any need to croito a panic over the price of dairy land, or Any other e land, because the principal will never need to bo paid—only in isolated cases. The true value of land is the "not profit" which can be made by Its use. The pet profit from 9 dairy form is all that Is made over and above what is actually consumed by the people who work the land,' which includes things sold in exchange for good consumed but not produced on the farm. The exchanging of farms tends to put a fictitious price on land, but I do not see how that cat) injure anybody but the individual' who Buys too dear, and consequently cannot sell again. The " price " of both town and country land in a great-measure depends on the number of peoplo who are strong enough financially to hold land not in profitable use and yielding no profit, as is the case with gold mining shares. The "price" of land Is no indication of its real value, ar.d is not a fair basin on which taxation should be levied. Ho taxation should be levied in Queen Street qn what it is worth por foot yearly or weekly rental, and not its selling price. We buy rent, or profit, which iB the same thing, when wo buy land, and the selling price of that rent or profit is influenced in many ways. For example, I know for a fact that some of our limited companies, and also mutual benefit societies, having funds for investment, will look at nothing but Queen Street property and dairy land in tho country. _ This confines the operations of peoplo with surplus income to invest to the security where money can be borrowed for building in the city and improving the country lands. This draws " surplus savings" of the people into Queen Street, and puts up the "price" of Queen Street land, and in some cases the rent demanded

[ drives tenants; ib side ", , and in many cases confUcatea the business, of the j tenants. The 'same thing'; happens with [ oOuntry lands, even • when the occupier is ,ct so-called, freeholder. It is astonishing how few are the workers required to I make us all. prosperous now that so much machinery is used in the world, but wo .must not allow the working farmer to he'ground down by excessive rent or interest untit ho is too poor to replace machinery. A few millionaires could keep up the price of land to any ' imaginary figure, no matter how much taxation was put on land, because the lax would be put on the tenant, or peopl# who used the land. Taxing the " price " of land is a farce, and is unjust; besides, it tends to concentrate land values into the hands of a few people. The estimated rental that the land could be made to yield when put to its present most profitable use is tb« only sane method of taxing the landholders. A. Sanfoud. j j j '