Charles Bathurst:
A Landlord on Landlords

Charles Joseph Smith

[This article orignally appeared, without acknowledgement in the Bulletin of English League for the Taxation of Land Values. Reprinted from Land and Freedom, May-June 1937. Brief biographical information on Charles Bathurst is added here for context]

Charles Bathurst was born in London and graduated from University College, Oxford, where he studied law and graduated with a BA in 1890. In 1910 he was elected to Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party. He remained in parliament until 1928, serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries from 1924 on. Then, in 1930 he was appointed Governor-General of New Zealand, an office he held until 1935.

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[Charles Bathurst] Lord Bledisloe has more than once written and spoken strongly about the way in which land is dealt with by those who claim to own it. In the House of Lords on March 17, he said that the time was coming, if it had not already come, when it would be desirable for the leaders of all political parties to agree as to what was expected of the landowners of this country and what was their economic utility. When he returned from New Zealand two years ago what struck him most was the appalling condition of the pasture land of Great Britain, ill-growing and full of weeds. In the interests of security they had to produce a larger quantity of foodstuffs.

Some years ago, Lord Bledisloe, landlord and farmer, suggested in Tory papers that we should follow the example of Denmark and rate land values. Soon afterwards the Government sent him out of the country by appointing him Governor-General of New Zealand. What will they do with him now that he is asking what is the use (if any) of landlords?

The speech was reported by the Daily Herald, headed in large capitals. The Times merely mentioned Lord Bledisloe among those who "continued the debate." One of these was Lord Amulree (National Liberal) who "felt that one thing that ought to be done was that where land was sold for speculative purposes it should be heavily taxed and the proceeds used for the development of the countryside and its amenities."