THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1927. LABOUR AND LAND

Wairarapa Age, 22 April 1927, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1927. LABOUR AND LAND

Sitting in conference at Napier, the Labour Party has amended its land policy, and in one respect at least the amendment is notable. It amounts to nothing less than an abandonment of the central feature of the notorious 4 ‘usehold” policy. Under that policy, the Labour Party declared that land should be saleable only to the State, and at a State valuation. As the land planks of the party platform, were redrawn at Napier the other day, a provision for the conservation of all State and publicly owned lancjl is followed by another which reads:— Full recognition of owner’s interest in all land, including tenure, right of sale, transfer and bequest. This certainly is an improvement on the “usehold” policy as it previously stood, but there is room for rather more than a suspicion that the Labour Party is not so much sincerely amending its land policy as trimming its sails in accordance with the distates of political expediency. Tho draft of the new land policy concludes with a statement that?:— The committee unanimously recommended the above in the' belief that the various sections were in line with the objective of the party—i.e, that public ownership of land was the only remedy for the present chaos and muddle, and supported the recommendations in the opinion that they were the best method by which tho objective could be attained. A political party which promises in one breath 4 4 full recognition ’ ’ of an owner’s interest in land, and in the next affirms that public ownership of land is the only remedy “for the present chaos and muddle,” has no right to complain if it is accused of talking with its tongue in its cheek. There is no reason to doubt that the Labour Party is sincere in stating that it aims at the public ownership of land. In that case, however, its promise of full recognition of the interests of private (owners of land becomes a thing of derision.