UNLOCK THE LAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8611, 23 December 1913, Page 2

UNLOCK THE LAND

To the Editor “N.2. Times."' Sir, —lour urt.cio in Friday's .o*uo under the Ueau.ng "omocn tuo ij»uiu empnasises tuo crjjinu,. need mere w ui tins coumiry lor sound laud leg-s----■LUian. Vvnou, as you say, less 'ui.u. rud persons own over 0,000,1/00 acres, and seven per cent, or the popu.iuion own nearly lour-nfths of uiy usable mud here, can anyone say, as 1 have lately heard sard, that strikes are at tiro botrom of ah economic troubles iu Now Zealand, with any regard to truth Y Strikes and labour troubles are merely the surface symptoms or deep-rooted economic injustice, and until justice is established there can be and shall be no peace. During the last thirty years the Government of this country has had unexampled opportunities ahorded it of placing the iiuauccs on a thoroughly sound basis, let we find to-day, tirat while land values have during this period enormously advanced, the indebtedness per head of the population is the higuest south of the line, while crushing tinstoms duties burden the very aves of the people. In 1378 the unimproved . aiue ol land in New Zealand was •1.02,073,868, in 1912 it had r.sen to aibil, 181,261, or an increase of £136, •UO.otki in thirty-rour years. During that period the gross public debt hao .ucreased from *116,000,000 to £34 - •163,913, and our taxation from a little over £732,000 to £5,t;1Ki,090. In 1912 the revenue collected from Customs alone amounted xo nearly £O,hXJ.OC/Q, while the revenue collected by the graduated tax was oniy £loo.li-t. the total number of land tax payers out of a population of 1,003,006 was in 1912 only 36,2731 It is piam th.ll practically the whole benefit of thes. .mormons runs of loan moneys have gone to the landowners, who have increased correspondingly the price of their lands. ' No purchase of lands by the Government, which merely enhances land

values, can possibly cope with a situation of this sort. Nothing short of a land tax so graduated as to compfi 1 arge owners to place their lands in t’ie market in such quantities as prac tically to force down competition to zero, can meet the situation. It is a disgrace to a country barely settled •sixtv years that there should bs lob applicants for seven sections offered tor ballot, as recorded lately in ycur ,'taper. It is a scandal and a menace to the community that land should he so scarce and dear. Huge tracts cf fertile land, 100 acres of which wou’o keep a family in comfort, are fenced ..IT by the monopo'ists. And the:, hese gentlemen, and their co-workers the merchants and capitalists of the towns, point to the strikers as tho roolT'of all the economic troubles. —■ I am, etc.,

Ngaio, December 22nd,