LAND VALUES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22179, 5 August 1935, Page 12

LAND VALUES

Sir, —There is some sound sense in the letter by Mr. G. H. MacKenzie. of Kawhia, on land values. .Mr. MacKenzie says that the true value of land is its productive value. This is correct, and is a factor which depend? on ninny tilings, such as market prices ruling, efficiency of labour of the farmer himself and employees, transport facilities and so forth, and the value to 0110 man will not be the same as it* value to another, this being the personal equation aspect. The only way, therf. to deal effectively and in accordance with true economics, is to let the land at an annua! ivntal. the figure being determined by the market, or the law of supply and demand, which is soon indicated l\v .-ales and other transfers, as with commodities. There is a good deal of land, of the kind which Mr. MacKenzie appears to have in mind, which has at present no selling or rental value whatever, because nothing would Iv let t to the producer after costs of production had been met. This land is "at tje margin of cultivation, and under a sound system it would be leased, at a peppercorn rental for legal requirements, which is really no rent at all practically. Some men would take up such land and bring it into a productive state, and in time proper roads, schools, and other facilities would bo available, and tho land would gradually acquire an unimproved value ah.ve costs of production, and would then earn a rental. For the aluation Department to "fix" rentals is just as economically wrong as to "fix prices of commodities, of transport sen ses, or of any other purely commercial commodity or service. The sooner we set rid of"all this State '"fixing" the soon••{ we will get out of our economic "fix." T. E. McMillan.