NOT MUCH LEFT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 211, 7 September 1927, Page 11

NOT MUCH LEFT.

LAND FOR FARMING.

PRESSURE OP ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

COST OF DEVELOPMENT TOO HIGH

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.*

WELLINGTON, Tuesday. "I have completed the investigation with my officers," explained the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, in the House of Representatives to-day, "and I am satisfied that the amount of land left in New Zealand which ia unocceupied, and capable of being occupied without subsidy from the State, of some sort, is very small indeed. "That is the conclusion I have come to, under pressure of economic conditions. I am not going to say that this will continue always, but I am' satisfied that the cost of bringing the main unoccupied lands of the country into occupation, except a very small* percentage, is hedged around with extreme financial risk." The Minister suggested that the demands of modern settlement were such that a financial success could not be made of these lands under present economic conditions.

He had every confidence that settlement would go on steadily, and compare more than favourably with any country in the Empire. There would be times when it would be difficult to make a forward move, and since the slump of 1921 we had been going through that period. Every country went through a process of digging in. • Mr. McCombs: They are digging out. The Minister replied that he had failed to find evidence of thousands of farmers walking off their farms. The department's records showed that in 1905 there were 68,000 rural occupiers of over ten acres, and there was an increase in 1911 of only 5000, while in the next five years the increase was 4000 to 77,000, and in 1921 an increase of 7000 to 84,000. In 1925 the rural holders numbered 85,907, an increase of only 1000. However, the city areas had shown large development, for since. 1912 he found that something like 15,000 separate holdings had disappeared from the rural areas through enlargement of city boundaries. Between 1905 and 1925 the areas between 50 and 100 acres had more than doubled, showing that progress towards subdivision was constantly being made.