19 APRIL 1930, Page 15

NEW ZEALAND v. BRITAIN.

A New Zealand newspaper has been sent to me containing a long leading article—founded on a paragraph in the Spec- tator—on the relative value of land in the two Antipodes. It concludes thus :— " Sunshine and rain, plenty of both, the advantage of Government loans, cheap railway transport of fertilisers and all other benefits and bounties have been capitalized by commercial farmers. These reasons and the worship of false economic gods explain why the price of land in this country has been hoisted to the price of stupidity."—(The Sun, Auckland, March 4th.)

It is doubtless true that the price of land in New Zealand is often a boom price—as much as £100 an acre near Auckland.

It is not less true that the price of agricultural land in England is what the Nova Scotians, and Sam Slick, call a knocker's price, low beyond all economic justification.

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