LAND SPECULATORS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1358, 20 June 1918, Page 5

LAND SPECULATORS.

BAR TO SETTLEMENT. MINISTER OX THE ALERT. (Special lo The Son.) WELLINGTON, June 18. The Minister of Lands has an eye on the land speculator. "I am more assured than ever," said the Hon. I). H. Guthrie to-day. "that the speculator is often an absolute bar to the successful settlement of land. His profits, which may be very large indeed, are added to the price of the land, and they are a millstone round the neck of the genuine settler. Thev may make all the difference between success and failure." The Minister has had his attention drawn to what speculators have done in some of the areas benefited by Government drainage schemes. Men with capital have bought land cheaply before the completion of the schemes, and have then required the actual settler to pay the full improved value and perhaps a bit more. The consequence is that the speculator has got the chief benefit from the expenditure of Government money, and the settlers have to bear from the lirst the handicap of high c. pita! cost.