THE LAND BILL

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26813, 19 August 1952, Page 5

THE LAND BILL

Sir,—Why does the Government contemplate cutting up the larger farms for closer settlement when most of those farms are already producing .to their maximum capacity, and emmen. would not have sufficient capital or experience to take up land themselves, while all over New Zealand there are acres of waste land producing nothing more than manuka scrub and fern? Surely it would be better to intensify the developmental work on this type of land, which, when broken in, would financially be more within the reach of young men wishing to farm. Let us bring the empty, waste spaces into production first. Time enough when s all the land is utilised to talk of cutting up the larger holdings, which in most cases decrease in size as members of the family take over their share of the farm.—Yours, etc., a a OUT WEST. August 16, 1952.

Sir, —Every British citizen should oppose this wretched land grab. Why should people who own the land have to carry all the burden of settling returned men? Any amount of returned servicemen would like to own a brewery, picture theatre, stock and station agency, a branch railway line (that the Government cannot operate successfully), buses, etc. There is not one acre of land that the Government is not after. Small holdings near towns are being squeezed from their owners, to house people who, in many cases, are tied by strings to other countries. What have men fought and died by the thousands for? Is it to all be struck out by a stroke of the pen? If so. to please whom?—Yours, etc., FAIR GO. Hornby, August 18, 1952.