LAND AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 190, 13 August 1928, Page 6

LAND AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

I agree with Mr. Guiniven in that lani settlement is a very important matter at the present time, but I hope that I will never see anything like what took place under the Seddon Government, when large blocks of laivf were passed over to certain people at a trifling rent. They were supposed to make certain improvements, but this was often not done. The land was only held for speculative purposes. Your correspondent could never have been in any of those districts where this leasehold was in vogue. I have lived in them, and know a little about it. I will give just cue instance of what came under my notice. An old man, without either wife or family, held eight hundred acres, doing nothing to it*except planting a few cabbage trees on the banks of the creeks each year, which satisfied the inspectors. The place was moftly in fern and tea-tree and was a great breeding ground for rabbits. There is a far greater cause of unemployment than want of settlement. There j« something else that is too dear as well aa land. " A.B.C.