HIGH LAND VALUES

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2316, 27 March 1930, Page 2

HIGH LAND VALUES

VISITING- FARMERS PUZZLED. COMPARISON" WITH OTHER COUNTRIES. Members of the Empire farmers' touring party who were interviewed by a Christchurch Times reporter on their journey to Christchurch last week trankly admitted that they were greatly puzzled concerning the high land values in New Zealand, as compared with those in the Old Country and South Africa. They declared that they were quite at a loss to understand how the New Zealand farmers could be so prosperous when they paid such high prices for their land. "I can't follow your land values at all," remarked Mr Daniel Crawford, of Herts, England, a member of the council of the National Farmers' Union. When asked if he would care to express an opinion concerning the land values in New Zealand, Mr Crawford said that it was very difficult for one making a sort of hop, step and jump tour of the Dominion to obtain a sound view of the position. "Perhaps," he added, "we are inclined to take too much notice of our own land values 'without giving consideration to the different conditions that you have in New Zealand. Of course, we know very little of the fertility of your soil and of your weather all the year round, but from a casual summing up of the position it would appear that your land values are out of all proportion." Mr Crawford mentioned that he was in the State of Georgia, in the United States of America, three years ago, and he was informed that 60,000 farms in that State alone had been abandoned owing to a collapse in the land values. These were small holdings, ranging in area from 160 to 320 acres. In England also people were leaving the land to go into the cities. It was quite true, he added, that the agricultural industry at Home was experiencing a bad time. The industry reached the apex of its prosperity during the war and early post-war years, and it was now feeling the effects of having to readjust itself to present-day conditions. Land values went up to the peak in 1920, but since then they had come down tremendously, and now they were quite 25 per cent below pre; war values for land used for arable farming. The graziers were now going to feel the pinch on account of the drop in the value of wool. The South African viewpoint was expressed by Mr A. V. Allan, of Natal. "If our farmers worked like your farmers do they would all be wealthy men," he remarked. "Some of the best land in South Africa to-day can be bought for from £1 to £5 an acre, and it seems strange to find men in. New Zealand farming land for which they have paid up to £IOO an acre.'.' In South Africa farming was extensive, but in New Zealand it was intensive, said Mr Allan. Natives were cmployed on the farms at a wage of about 1/6 a day, but they were not particularly good workers. There were some parts of the Union where the natives were showing some progress, but generally that was not the case, and the natives worked only by compulsion. They were not permanent employees and would work only longenough to get enough money to enable them to keep going.

Other members of the party also expressed surprise at the land values.in New Zealand, but preferred not to express any opinions, as they did not understand the causes of the high values.