LAND SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 206, 28 August 1920, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT.

I Running through the annual report of | the Lands Department on the settlement of Crown lands is a thread of warning about inflation of land values. "Enhanced prices have been realised," says tho UndtrSecretary in tho body of the report, "and only tho eontimiai demand at high rates for our primary products wili enable mr.ch of tho land to return an adequate jneome." Ho refers also to "a un'-vereul participation in speculation leading to much transferring and trafficking in land of every description." Of courso it !s not | for him to point out how much tho Government has contributed to this stato 'of thiupi by its soldier settlement policy, ' and how little it has dano to check speculation and Inflation, Tho Auckland i Commissioner of Crown Lnnda "finds two i redeeming features in. "a period of Inflated values which would otherwise have littlo cither to commend or justify them I—tho sub-division of estate* and the I necess ! ty impound on purchasers to farm ' scientifically so as to make a profit on their heavy on tiny. Tho Tarnnnkl Com- ! missioner says tho price of land seems :to have soared even higher than dairy . product prices wnrrant. These prices and the spirit of gambling "have largely increased tho number of land agents, already t,oo numerous. . . . This also I lias the effect of taking energetic mon from the ranks of producers, who swell the population in the towns, and thus increase tho housing problem." In this connection tho Under-Secretary of the Department mentions that tho number of registered land agents hne increased from 9119 to 1400 since 1013, Another feature of tho report is tho fresh emphasis it lays on the fact that all the efforts of the .Government —two years utter the Arm'stice—in tho direction of fresh settlement arc still being directed to soldier settlement. Tho Department has nothing new to offer either the civilian lund-seoker or the immigrant. Tho Auckland Commissioner recalls that last year lie pointed out that the Dominion was los ; ng suitablo immigrant settlers because the Crown lands available offered little inducement ta them. "The resumption of immigration from the Mother Country hnß emphasised this position, and new arrivals in the Dominion experience difficulty in securing suitable lands to settle on. There is tints a riisk that experienced farmers and veterniw of tho war may be lost to the IDominion, and either of these types would prove excellent colonists." If anything, this is putting it mildly. The extraordinnry fnct reappears in this report that a most fertile, country, capablo of supporting many millions, but carrying now less than one and a-quarter million people—less than the population of many cities —has at present littlo to offer to the seeker for land unless ho has a good deal of capital in his pocket.