GROUP SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 64, 17 March 1930, Page 19

GROUP SETTLEMENT.

In your columns Mr. S. Williams writes on the above subject and spoke of the Group Settlement Act initiated by the ( Coates Government. The term group ' settlement has been utilised several j times in connection with the legislation referred to but so far as my League is concerned this Ib not at all what we have in mind when we recommend group settlement. In the legislation of 1928 persons wishing to sell their farms, and finding purchasers, ;were assisted, subject to The Government's approval, to the extent of 95 per cent of the necessary finance, hut the purchasers were then left to carry on in their own sweet way without advice or supervision of any kind. Our view is that in all schemes undertaken, whether the Crown finds all or a very large portion of the necessary capital, the new settlers should be, as far as possible, grouped, and the work carried < on in a recognised sphere where advice and assistance, together with a certain ; amount of pooling of necessary implements, is assured. By this means the cooperation of local experienced settlers ■ would be enlisted and the : settlers haye available to them an invaluable fund of ' information ' which would give them a maximum of opportunity to succeed. At the same time, the public funds would be safeguarded by personal contact with the : people whom the State was financing and in cases where the settlers were "in- J suitable, or not likely to succeed, the ' necessary change could be made before the matter became serious. As a 1 league, we consider the 1928 legislation 1 is the only form which should be used for the settlement of developed lands, in , that the seller and buyer have the re- , sponsibility and the State merely does ( the financing, in contradistinction to the State becoming the purchaser and having the responsibility of getting suitable ] settlers. Generally speaking, there is at ; the present moment excellent legislation, j and all that is needed Is a sound appre- < ciation of the vital importance of land i settlement and the necessary putting < into execution by those responsible of the - legislative provision available to them. ' Sir Joseph Ward, speaking on the sub; j ject of unemployment to a deputation in April last, said, "In order to arrive at a proper solution of the unemployment problem in this country we must have an advanced system of, land settlement," yet in the report of the National Committee on the subject of unemployment we are told that the committee has shelved the subject of land settlement and proposes that it should be dealt with by a board to be set up to deal with the collection and payment of unemployment relief. -N. G. GRIBBLE, Secretary, N.Z. Land Settlement and Development League. AN INVENTOR'S DIFFICULTY. I would like to know what chance a born New Zealander has of making good'in scientific research work in this country? Just because I cannot atTord the money to build a laboratory and stock same with the required tools, etc., 'I-must stand down. Now all my life I &ave been'bent on experimenting along a number of lines, but what can I do when; I come to the conclusion that a certain thing has to be made very exact before it will work ? How am I off for tools? I honestly believe New Zealand has a large number of inventors, etc., who are held back by not having the money and tools to work out the ideas they originate. In America there is a huge faboratory where inventors can walk in and use all the appliances, etc.. and work out their ideas. If the idea is all right they pay the proprietor of the laboratory so much, but if the idea m no good it does not cost the inventor a penny. WOULD-BE INVENTOR. ,