The Tap-Root of this Evil.

Ground rent, he said, existed in different forms. It existed in England in a form which was not found much in New Zealand. In many cases ground rent was paid by the ten-[unclear: nt] to the landlord, thus it was passed over [unclear: in] cash from the tenant to the landlord. That was a very definite thins:. All could [unclear: see] it and know it was ground rent. But [unclear: suppose] the landlord instead of letting it to the tenant chose to carry on an industry on his own land. Did he not receive a ground [unclear: rent]? Certainly he did, though not in the form of cash from somebody else. He obtained in addition to his labour that which a tenant would be willing to pay, and so in effect received ground lent. It paid him better to carry on on his particular piece of land than to go further afield where there were not so many people passing his door and becoming possible customers. There was another form in which ground rent existed. There was a [unclear: good] deal of land vacant, and also a good deal of land let far below its value. That [unclear: land] must be assessed at the value which might be obtained for it if it was properly used. So it would be seen ground rent existed in three forms: in the form of actual cash payments; in the form of advantages [unclear: gained] by the man who worked the ground that he owned; and also in the properly [unclear: assessed] value of a piece of land which was [unclear: not] used as it ought to be, and which might be made of greater advantage to the community.