THE LAND SPECULATOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18356, 23 March 1923, Page 7

THE LAND SPECULATOR.

—The land speculator is no doubt a useful member of society, if the business is kept within reasonable bounds. The men, or syndicates, who subdivide our townships along the seaside are public benefactors, because they are doing what small individuals would not get done in a lifetime. By giving thousands of people more pleasure in life the land is put to a more useful and profitable purpose, and is worth more money in a short time than it would have been in a lifetime, or ever, if the world was depending on every individual to help bring about the change from useless tea-tree scrub to beautiful cottages and gardens. Land speculation, and " land gambling " with our agricultural dairy and pastoral lands is quite a different thing. The land gamblers do not put any land to batter use and must surely end up in all sorts of loss and misery. A " speculative builder " in our suburbs and places suitable for residences and shacks for summer use, is also a useful member "of society, and should be encouraged, because without the man with brains and instinct for speculating the houses would never be put up without State interference and State finance, which is a "curse," and must, sooner or later, end in disaster, because the State cannot do the work that a speculative builder can do at anything like the price. If the speculative builder and the speculator in land, put land to better t use, and make idle land earn profit, it is very clear that the profit earned (if it is a continuous income from that land) will immediately increase the wealth of the community to the extent of the "credit" created when the said profit is earned and in private pockets. " Speculation " may, in many cases, do good for the community if private enterprise has a free hand. Individuals may lose, and the community gain, but in the case of the State interfering, and putting all sorts of silly restrictions on private speculations there is stagnation ahead, and that close at hand. To deal intelligently with the pre ; sent world-wide problems, we must not prescribe the same medicine for all complaints. Speculation in wool, gold, or any other labour products " has quite' a different effect from speculating in " rent," or in other words, the profit that land will earn when put to its best use. • Land " gambling " is the result of ignorance but I will drop my pan for fear of spq,ce, although we are threatened with another form of State borrowing to keep up the gamble. This time it is to be called " bonds," which certainly will " bind " the people if the State has a hand in the " guarantee." A. Sanford.