THE LAND QUESTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8122, 16 May 1912, Page 1

THE LAND QUESTION.

UNITED LABOUR PARTY INTERESTING THE FARMERS. “The indications arc tliat within twelve months we will have-100,000 members, said Professor W. T. Mills to a . Times reporter last night. ‘'We are bringing gradually to our ranks all of th© radical and progressive elements which have heretofore voted with the Conservatives or Liberals. Our land programme will especially appeal to working farmers and to householders whether in the city .or country. The Farmers’ Union which now exists is almost entirely an explorting organisation; I am prepared to prove to the satisfaction of any gathering of working farmers that every plank in their platform if adopted would seriously injure the farmers themselves. "There arc a number of others who'are going to enter upon this campaign at an early date. It is true, beyond question, that one of the leading factors in the United Labour party will be the workingfarmer’s vote, and we are going.to get him through a literature campaign, in the direction of showing, him that he cannot invest his money in land which at most is not figured as earning a greater income than 5 per cent, on the unimproved value and then borrow money from 6 to 8 per cent, with which to stock his farm and provide improvements. The remedy for this is that whenever land is at the disposal .of the Government, it should be immediately opened for settlement on terms under which the settler will simply pay in an annual tax, the actual annual value—-that no more and n °"There any amount of land which is not even worth occupying..: There is other land which is just, worth occupying and other land which can pay ■ a small rental, but every acre of land ought to be opened and made available at exactly its annual unimproved, value. There }& jeißo.ooo.ooo in New Zealand invested in unimproved land values., lam sure that the men who hold this investment not for speculation but for actual use would be making a great deal more opt of thenmoney if the 5 pep- cent, were paid on Government account, leaving the other ,£175,000.000 free to invest in tools, stock, and buildings, to multiply’ the productivity of their own labour. This will be especially appreciated by the farmer who has put his money in land and. is naving 8 per cent for stock on a price which was 50 per cent. too. high, when the contract was made- Jtle is paying tor too much 'water/