UNOCCUPIED AREAS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 87, 13 April 1927, Page 9

UNOCCUPIED AREAS.

AN OPTIMISTIC MINISTER. DOMINION NOT SINGULAR. OTHERS HAVE TROUBLES TOO. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") THAMES, this day. "There has recently been considerable agitation, particularly in Auckland province, in regard to the development of unoccupied Crown lands and further development of swamp areas," said the Minister of Lands, speaking at an entertainment here last night. "In times of depression it is necessary for governments to restrict borrowings to minimum requirements, thus keeping taxation within reasonable bounds. Vet )t invariably happens that tlie cry for >ievelopment of new areas, necessitating the borrowing of largi- sums of money, is most insistent during such per'ods. ere it in Xew Zealand alone that doubtful areas remained unoccupied, then I and my Department might fairly earn the adverse criticism at pre-cnt being so assiduously promulgated in cer tain quarters. My own investigation and the Department's continuous rec .ni of the state of affairs in Canada, the United States, Australia and otlmr countries, couvienee me talit their difficulties are as great, and in most cases greater, than ours, and arise almost entirely from economic causes. If these difficulties are to be overcome at all it can only be accomplished by the general community accepting a much greater financial responsibility with respect to those who are prepared to go out and reclaim the waste spaces of the earth. Scarcely an overseas mail arrives which does not bring to my office letters from Canada, the United States and Australia, from men who claim a lifetime experience of farming, and who seek an opportunity of taking up land on lines which they say do not exist in their own countries. * I have voluminous and conclusive evidence that in all the countries I have mentioned it is almost impossible for those with little or no capital to establish themselves successfully on land under the economic conditions ruling during recent years."