LAND SPECULATION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8179, 22 July 1912, Page 1

LAND SPECULATION

A FARMER'S TESTIMONY

RAMPANT THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, A few random passages taken from a letter written to the press by a Waikato farmer will servo to again emphasise an evil which seems to be rampant throughout the country, and ono that calls for immediate attention. Listen. “There is nothing more productive of evil, of misery, and hardships in New Zealand to-day than land speculation. I know welt that those are hard words, but I know also of the damning facta that bear them out in their entirety. Land speculation is sapping the very roots of good farming. Whenever a district ‘booms’ their flock the speculators as the eagles to the carcase. They buy merely to sell again at a profit. They do nothing to advance farming; they are not one whit concerned about improving the fertility of the soil. They block out the bona fide settler and hold on, keeping the laud idle, until their neighbours, by sheer hard work, have improved their lands and so have raised the value of the holding of the idle speculator. . . .

“The speculator holding as a middleman prevents the bona _ fide settler from buying at a fair price. He buys to hold. Then ho booms the land, so that when the genuine settler comes along he has to pay 10, HO, 30 or even 50 per cent, more than ho should do. That percentage goes to the pockets of the speculator. It is taken right away from the cultivation of the soil; it does not benefit farming one iota; but it saddles genuine farmers with a heavy load, which often prevents them from developing their land as, they should. . . . “Ono land agent boasted that he knew of a section that had had no less than thirteen owners 1 The thirteenth (unlucky number) was tfying to grind a living out of it, while! the other twelve were all fattening on him.

“There is yet another class of speculator. This is the speculator farmer; . . , A great many farmers are/following this practice of buying and selling. In -one district a settler, who has been there only twelve months, was _ the ‘oldest resident,’ all the others having proved merely ‘farmer speculators’ and sold out.

“Land speculation prevents any-’set-tled-policy of farming; it takes away all pride in the breed ot animals rear/ ed and tho quality of goods exported. In a word, it outs at the very heart of.; farming, and if it becomes general Trn ’NbW*'Zearah : cl it means her speedy ruig:”. ...