THE LAND PROBLEM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 260, 2 November 1928, Page 8

THE LAND PROBLEM

POSITION SUMMARISED SPEECH BY MR DOWNIE STEWART Tn his address to the electors in Dunedin last Tuesday, Air Downie Stewart said he might mention the land question, land settlement, and farmers’ problems generally. If land settlement were difficult in New Zealand at present, we had only to look abroad to see that it was far more acute in other countries. For example, in America it was said that over 1.000,000 farmers loft their farms in 1923. Tn the same country the farmer bankruptcies rose from 997 in 1920 to 7772 in 1924. So also, if one read the parliamentary debates in Western Australia, where a Labour Government rules, he would find that they were faced with exactly the same problem as the Reform Government in New Zealand, namely, as to how to keep on the land those farmers who had already been settled there. The same causes produced the same effects in all agricultural and pastoral countries where war prices for farm produce inflated land values.

And, although the cry was now raised that the Government should not have put soldiers on the land at these high values, everyone knew that when purchases were being made the continual criticism was that the Government land purchase officers were too conservative. Soldiers saw civilians buying land at high prices all around them, and when caution was urged lhe National Government wall roundly attacked for its attempts to curb the persistent demand that purchases should be made. The criticism was also raised that properties should have been purchased compulsorily. What would have been the. result had this been done? Obviously the owners would have been entitled to be paid at a price based on the, phenomenal war prices for farm products.’ In addition, compensation courts had always allowed a generous margin to a dispossessed owner, so that under compulsory purchase the prices would have in that, ease been not less than those actually paid, and in most cases would have been much higher. Another factor which operated adversely Io land settlement was the shortage of labour during the war, and the settle inability to employ labour after high prices have, been paid for the land. The effect of this was not so marked in the South Island as in the North, where, in many districts, it was a well-known fact that if land were allowed to lie idle for even a short lime it went back into the scrub and fern, and was far more difficult to handle than if it had never been touched. This gave rise to the whole problem of the deteriorated lands in the North Island. The problem therefore in New Zealand, was not. as was frequently alleged a problem of land aggregation or land monopoly, but of restoring stability to farming conditions and restoring financial confidence in farm securities. In this respect he disagreed with Sir Joseph Ward when he said it was necessary to import £60,000,000 for farmers’ finance. In his (Mr Stewart’s) opinion there were large sums of money in all the financial institutions awaiting investment if they could be assured that land values wore stabilised, and that the security was adequate. To lend vast sums of money at less than market rates would only produce a fresh inflation of land values and recreate the artificial conditions from which we were just escaping.