BRITISH LAND QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19195, 8 December 1925, Page 8

BRITISH LAND QUESTION.

As the most vigorous and authoritative spokesman of the British Liberal Party, Mr. Lloyd George is prosecuting the land campaign which he launched in its name some months ago. Nobody denies that agriculture is in a desperately depressed condition. The Liberal, remedy is reform of the land system, with special reference to tenure. In the words of one commentator, "our fertile soil must be made as productive as the less fertile, soil of Denmark: the half-derelict countryside must be repeopled ; the prospect of a career on the land they love must lie opened up to those who work on the land." The Liberal Party rejects protection of agricultural produce, and bounties The scheme opened up by Mr. Lloyd George has been summarised as the resumption of cultivable land by the State and its transfer to competent cultivating tenants. The tenant who farms successfully is to be given reasonable security of tenure, while the owner is to be paid an annuity for the use of the land. Coupled with the tenure scheme are proposals for long term rural credits, research and education, and marketing and transport schemes with special reference to co-operation. It is interesting to note that occupying ownership is examined as a possible alternative and rejected. It is claimed that even if the scheme does involve in one sense the nationalisation of agricultural land, it does not mean the nationalisation of the farming industry, which would in- | volve State ownership of farming equipment and direction of operations. For the scheme it is urged that in present circumstances the whole industry is under-capitalised since those who own the land in the main have not the capital to develop it as once they did. The merits or demerits of the scheme must of course be -worked out and determined on the spot. They cannot be pronounced upon at a distance. Its chief interest for the detached | spectator is the evidence it contains that the Liberal Party, fallen on evil days, has turned to agriculture and j the land problem for new inspiration j and a battle-cry in the fight it is J about to make for continued existence.