LIBERALS' LAND PLAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 8

LIBERALS' LAND PLAN

A STATE CONTROL SCHEME.: FARM LABOURERS' SECTIONS. LONDON, October 6. The Liberal Land Commitee, of which Mr Lloyd George is chairman, after 400 meetings with landlords, farmers and cottagers throughout Britain, and an investigation of European conditions, has issued a 510-page report. This proposes a back-to-the-lands scheme, based on "cultivating tenure," establishing that access to land should be reserved to those best , qualified for its use. The proposals include the possession by the State of all cultivable land with power to transfer to persons competent of cultivating it to the best advantage, the present landowner receiving a perpetual annuity equivalent to a fair rent, to be determined by a Land Court. The report suggests the establishment of county authorities to ensure good cultivation, and to eject defaulting farmers. The present landholders would be entitled to retain possession only if they were qualified and competent, and tenants would have a life tenure and power to transmit to competent heirs. Farm labourers would be entitled to a grant of half an acre, after five years' service, removing the reproach that the British is the only landless peasant in Europe. They would also be entitled to a minimum wage, fixed before the rent ia assessed. If the tenant was unable to pay the minimum, the rent would be reduced, thereby reducing the landlord's annuity. It is estimated that the authorities would have at their disposal 260,000 acres yearly, apart from land recovered owing to bad cultivation.