THE LAND QUESTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22688, 29 March 1937, Page 12

THE LAND QUESTION

Sir.—With all due respect to 3lr. Johnstone I still hold that community j rallies do not apply to mm! lands and that even in the cities this contention is always very much exaggerated. and ! is more a delusion than a reality. Community values (so called) rise and fall independently of population, and any values that may be thus created are. in any case, distributed in so many ways that all get a share more or -less equitable. Wage-earners more than receive their share by constantly receiving higher wages paid to them. In Wednesday's Hehald. for instance, we read the Minister's statement that these increases (according to records'* amount to no less than £14,000.000 since the Government took office. He states that business also, in consequence, is better than for 20 years past, which is quite reasonable under the circumstances. But how about the taxpayers, and the fermers, in particular, who, while all other workers are now receiving anything from 100 to *>oo per cent increases compared with 1911 prices, are still feeding the community and receiving export prices that existed 20 years 'ago. There have L-een increases in retail prices owing to distribution costs continually rising, hut tins does not reach the producers' pocket, though many additional farming costs do. 1® seems inevitable, therefore, that many economic complications must arise unless the interests of our primary P r ®" ducer arc satisfactorily safeguarded. At present the only way open js to pay h'm a compensating price sufficient; to cover all farming costs, whether faraiing fully or partly improved land. or whether of first cr second qmuity. Dr. Sach's idea, that by decreasing farming costs you only inflate lane values, is a true and faNe mixture. ant dangerous in the extreme. y t7 " . advance the same theory and that improving city and secondary m dustries and wages on!v leads to increasing city land values. There hapnv medium in all things, and to P. one section ot the community &•_ wages at the expense of another wrong, and in the end will hmde expansion of, and strangle our mosMmportant and our only ™ Co £ ol ti oD . dustrv. 1. ii- • Taupaki.