SMALL HOLDINGS FOR SELECTORS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13474, 14 July 1909, Page 6

SMALL HOLDINGS FOR SELECTORS.

The Government's scheme for providing small holdings for selection in various parts of the country, as outlined the other day by Mr Buddo. is a step in tho right direction, though, unfortunately, it does not go very far. Four hundred sections, from 100, to 200 acres each, of unimproved Crown land, are to 'be offered under the Improved Farm Settlement Act, which provides that the Government may advance money for improvements, thus assisting settlers to clear the land and bring it into cultivation, and to build houses and erect" fencing. These advances will be added to the capital value of the land, and the tenant -will pay rent on the total sum, though in tho case of bush land, no rent will be demanded until after the first '"burn." Mr Buddo is sanguine enough to think that the offer of these sections may withdraw some of tho surplus labour from the market, but quite apart from the fact that they will not •be available for selection until early in the spring, when labour is usually in demand, their effect on the labour market is not likely to be appreciable. If there were 4000 sections to bo offered instead of 400, it would be hardly sufficient to appease the oarth-hunger which exists in New Zealand. The sections are to be balloted for in the usual way, and we shall no doubt read of scores of applicants for each section, which is also.the usual way.. The whole affair is merely trifling with a matter of vital importance. New Zealand's greatest need, next to sound administration, is the increase of settlement and' production. Given that, the urgent need of every half-filled country, there would be no necessity for heavier taxation. "Why do the Government fiddle in this fashion with the matter of land settlement, and delay dealing with the native land question m a statesmanlike . manner? Thejo are hundreds of.thousands of acres of the best land in New Zealand simply going to xaste, waiting for the energetic settler to bring it into profitable cul-

tivation, while the would-be settler, in his turn, is waiting >the pleasure of the Government. There are now for the first time in the Dominion's history, two representatives of the native race in the Ministry. They might be expected to assist in the solution of this problem, in the interests of both races, ■but apparently their influence is exerted in the opposite direction. Among all the Ministers there does not seem one man capable of tackling this question "as it should be dealt with.