The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 71
What they ought to have done
What they ought to have done.
It would be it fair question for some of those present to ask him how they ought to have begun their land settlement here if they were to have started on right lines. They ought to have begun by granting perpetual absolute titles subject to adjustable ground rent payments. This plan would not have had the disadvantage which was attached to both the leasehold and freehold titles, but would have contained the good points of each. It would not reduce the capital in the man's pocket before he settled on the land. It would give him the absolute security which no lease-hold ever did. It would not give one settler an advantage over the other; because if the rent was adjusted periodically and at sufficiently short periods, each man would pay according to the value proved to exist in his case on the basis of ground rent. Thus, if each one paid exactly the worth of the advantages he enjoyed, no one would have an advantage over another. This arrangement would render land speculation and landlordism impossible. These classes would have no chance of making anything by land purchase. If there was no chance for a person to buy a section of land for £100 with the idea of holding on for a few years until the value had increased to £500, there would be nothing to encourage the speculator. Also the landlord—the man who owned land which he did not cultivate, but let to others at a rental—would eventually be discouraged, inasmuch as he would have to pay to the State all the ground rent he received from his tenants. A man would thus only take up as much land as he required for actual use.