THE FARMER AND THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19416, 26 August 1926, Page 6

THE FARMER AND THE LAND.

Sir, —When Mr. G. A. Harper hlameo the high price of land for the famines' difficulties he is airing a shibboleth which is not necessarily true because it, is generally accepted. Mou are leaving farms for which they paid hardly anything. There is no great difference in the ai'ea cultivated, nor in the number of men on the land, as between 1914 ailtl 1926. There, is a increase in the population of New Zealand and in the standard of comfort of that population. The increased local population takes an increased proportion of the butter, meat, wool, etc., produced by the fafraer. In spite of this the value of then exports has multiplied two and a-half times, as an examination of the five v ears' averages 1909 13 (£17,113,650) and 1920-24 (£42.898,741), will show. These periods exclude exceptional years, such as the one just passed. There lias been no such rise in the average. value of land, which can still bo bought in many districts for less than the pro-war cost of bringing it in. Apart from sentimental and positional value, land may he bought at Government values in many districts. The Crown Lands Department advertise hosts of improved sections, loaded only with the very conservatively advanced Government loans, and cannot quit them. Why'! Because the nation has exploited the fanners, In city values, wages and whei'evcr else a blister could be stuck, the exporting industries have been plastered until their natural vitality has been reduced and they- 'are dying, not for the 'ncicessitiesf but for the comfort of the rest of tho classes. Common Sense.