"THE LAND QUESTION"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21940, 25 October 1934, Page 17

"THE LAND QUESTION"

Sir, —I entirely agree with Mr. T. E. McMillan that it is because we have acted in the past as though ethics were not important that we are in the present mess. This confirms my point of view that it may be inadvisable to take too purgative a dose of them now. Fundamentally, it is not land we are considering, not money, but mankind. Most of our wrongs are someone's "rights." People will fight for their rights. That means trouble, inevitable in the past, now believed by an increasing number to be no longer so Those who state there is merely maldistribution of wealth view possessors of "rights" as public enemies. Therein lies the danger. The right time for land reform in England was in the early decades of last century, when the industrial revolution, infringing on a system of private ownership, was creating an urban proletariat. The problem to-day is not their existence, but that they are largely without means of existence, due entirely to the outworn reward and punishment philosophy of our social structure, based on the no longer applicable "In the sweat of tliy brow shalt thou eat bread." The curse is lifted for the production problem is solved. Less people are needed to serve all. All have a right to live. It is simply a distribution problem, and money is the key to it. With that simple problem solved, and a better atmosphere engendered, wo shall find easy solutions to the thousand and one ills of the body politic. Land came first, it is true, but money has hp en placed first ever since. I believe thero is both maldistribution and a shortage of purchasing power. Ihe results of the former tend to hide the existence of the latter. A matter of opinion on a debatable point is only a "fundamental error" to one holding an opposite view. I thank Mr. McMillan fof kindly giving his opinion of the results of land reform. Tn reply to his questian, unemployment is a symptom of prosperity. One hears that only Russia and Tristan da Cunha have no form of "private appropriation of ground rentals," no unemployment "problem." It appears, then, that they are unfortunate in their choice of a system . Russia's real trouble is that her cultural heritage was largely destroyed in the revolution, and she is painfully but fairly quickly building up another. Tristan is busy killing rats. A. A. Weight.