LAND DEVELOPMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 13

LAND DEVELOPMENT.

WHAT IS BEING DONE.

GOVERNMENT'S RECORD. \ CONTRASTED. WITH REFORM'S. Besides outlining the Government's record so far as land settlement and development are concerned, the Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, speak; ing at the Remuera Public Library on Thursday night, replied to the criticism levelled against him. "There has been a good deal of criticism about my part of it," said Mr. Forbes. "It has been said that I have not got a move on. Well, I will show you. The Land Laws Amendment Bill was introduced last session, authorising sums up to £5,000,000 to be borrowed to enable settlers to be placed' on Crown lands. Although the Christmas holidays intervened shortly after the bill was put through, the Government has bought much land. Committees have been put in the field and they have made many reports. Land has had to be examined for cutting up into blocks. A good deal has been cut up and is now ready to be opened by selection." Reform's "Sink or Swim." Mr. Forbes said that when the Government took office it found that land settlement had come to a standstill. "Very little had been done to settle men on Crown lands. The first thing that had to be done was to buy whatever land possible to put settlers on to make a profitable living. By introucing the bill it enabled the Government to make advances up to £1250. The Reform Government's only method had been to survey, cut up and ofler such lands to the public, accept a half year's rental from the applicants and leave them to sink or swim. Crown lands not already taken up presented difficulties which made it necessary to offer special assistance. "This is the only way of dealing witb this class of land," said Mr. Forbes. "I want to compliment the advisory committees' who are doing that work and also the officers of the Land Department who have been working day and night recently. They have been told that we must have results and they have risen to the task magnificently." (Aplauee). Impracticable Suggestion. "We read in the Reform papers such criticism as this: 'Why not put the unemployed on the rough bush and scrub land's?' That is impossible, for the simple reason that this class of land requires much breaking in and clearing, and judicious stocking and fencing, the cost of which would be prohibitive, to the unemployed. It would cost two or three times what the land was worth. "One of the things I inherited was the famous wattle plantation at Te Kauwhata. (Laughter). That has been going for 50 years, and 6a far only 50 tons of wattle bark has been produced from it. We are getting nothing out of it and I have now given instructions for the cutting up of this land into contract blocks suitable for dairy farms." Progress in Auckland. Mr. Forbes then read from=a Departmental report details of progress made ih;the.North Auckland Land District, as followstJ. ■

(1) The Tiaipa Block of 900 acres in the Mangonui district. This block has been subdivided into seven sections, and will be offered with exemption from payment of rent for a term of five years. (2) The Pakiri Block, near Wellsford; area, 562 acres. This will be offered in three sections, rent free for three years. (3) Two sections in the Omapere Block, near Okaihau; . total area, 612 acres. (4) The Koheroa Block, near Mercer; area, 1406 acres, subdivided' into seven holdings. The above blocks are all undeveloped land. The Koheroa Block is being offered this month (April), and' the Taipa, Omapere and Pakiri Blocks will be opened in June. In addition, seven scattered sections, totalling 1806 acres of undeveloped and partly-developed land, are being offered in May. The Crown land to be offered in North Auckland during the next three months comprises 26 sections, totalling 5286 acres.' The report also stated that roading and! surveying was in progress on six other areas, aggregating 18,179 acres, which would provide in all 41 holdings. In the Auckland Land District in addition to 38 holdings, comprising nearly 9000. acres, lately opened for selection, two blocks of good dairying land would be opened probably in May. These were the Mangakura settlement of 921 acres, in the Te Kauwhata district, which had been subdivided into seven farms, and a property of 422 acres nine miles from Te Awamutu, which had been divided into four holdings. Purchased 32 Properties. After speaking of the development of pumice lands, and saying that this class of land had to be dealt with cautiously until the best way of development had been discovered, Mr. Forbes reminded his audience that nearly forty years ago, when the Cheviot Estate was cut up, much criticism had been heard. During the last sixteen months of office, the Reform Government purchased only two properties for subdivision, with a total area of 478 acres, costing about £3000. "My Government, since its sixteen months of office, has purchased- 32 properties, aggregating 58,000, at a total cost of £596,000." (Applause.)