"BREAKING IN" LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 91, 18 April 1929, Page 9

"BREAKING IN" LAND.

DANISH EXAMPLE. HOW GOVERNMENT HELPS. <;IKT OF £2 10/ PER ACRE. < By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WATHT. this day. The president of the Waihi branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, Mr. O. B'.Terring, commenting 011 the policy of the Government in regard to the ><• .lenient of waste lands, as outlined by t le Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, states that the proposed scheme of dealing with unimproved lands will meet with general approval. Mr. B'Jerring, who is a native of Denmark, farms a block of some 3000 acres in the Mataura Valley between Waihi and Wliangamata.

Mr. B'Jerring went on to say that close settlement and intensive farming were adopted on all farm lands in his country. Assistance to settlers in their initial efforts was an important factor, but he was inclined to think that it would be better for the Government to lend money to men going on the land than for it to bear the preliminary expenses, his reason being that if the settlers were of the right class they would get better results themselves for the money spent.

The system of Government assistance in Denmark, said Mr. B'.Terring, was simple and effective and might be summed up in a few words. For every acre a farmer breaks in from virgin land the Danish Government hands over to that farmer about £2 10/ as a gift. In Denmark there are practically no Crown lands, nearly all the land being owned privately. This method of assistin ir tlio farmer was introduced about thirty years ago, prior to which the Government had no particular land settloment policy. tSince the introduction <>t" the r-ystem nearly all the unimproved land throughout the country had been brought under cultivation, and many hundreds of farmers had been enabled to increase their production every year. As an illustration of the effectiveness of the system, Mr. K'.lerring said that a man starts off with. say. fifty acres of unimproved land, of which he" breaks ia ten acres. He then receives from the Government the ca-li gift of about £2 10/ for each of the ten acres. With this in hand he proceeds to break in a few more acres, and so on until hit whole property i-; broken in, when he will have received anything from £125 to £100. The sy.-tem, when he left Denmark, was working admirably, and its benefit to the farmers and the propress of the dairying industry of the coiintrv was undoubted.

Referring to the Waihi district, Mr. B.lerring said there were approximately 100,000 acres of idle land awaiting settlement between Wailii and Whangamata. Much of it, was suitable for dairying, aud the balance would carrv cattle and sheep. Jn regard to unproductive privately-owned lands, he wag of the opinion that a special tax should be imposed.