FUNDS FOR LAND DEVELOPMENT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27641, 23 April 1955, Page 11

FUNDS FOR LAND DEVELOPMENT

South Island Claim To One Third

STUDY BY LOCAL BODY MEMBERS

Claims by the land committee of the South Island Local Bodies’ Association for a third share of the money available for land development in New Zealand to be spent in the South Island, will be renewed after a series of personal inspection visits have been completed.

Recently the committee inspected Southland districts, and decided that large areas of land there could be developed as easily and brought into production as quickly as the pumice and gum lands of the North Island, on which money is now being spent.

Areas west of Westland, and the West Coast in general, would soon receive the attention of the committee, said the secretary (Mr F. G. K. Gilchrist).

Previously, the association had sent two deputations to the Government. Now, to add weight to their claims, members of the committee would inspect the areas under discussion before they again approached the Minister for Lands (Mr E. B. Corbett! and the Minister in charge of Rehabilitation (Mr T. P. Shand). West Coast Possibilities The need for development of land on the West Coast was of particular importance, said Mr Gilchrist, because of the decline of the province’s major industries—gold, coal and timber. “In the past, we have been told by the Government that, in the national interest, it is more important to develop easier projects in the pumice lands near Rotorua and the gum lands of Northland,” he said. “Our people are convinced there is land that could be brought in just as quickly in the South Island.” The island deserved at least a third of the money spent on land development because approximately that amount was provided by South Island taxpayers, Mr Gilchrist said. At least 250,000 acres of land in Southland could be easily developed and made highly productive in a comparatively short time, Mr Gilchrist said. Remarkable results had been obtained at Lynwood station, on the way to Lake Te Anau. In a little more than two years, the Lands Department working on this 65,522acre station had reclaimed about 3000 acres from silver tussock and light scrub.

Lynwood was being developed for about the same cost as the pumice land in the North Island, he said. This proved to the committee that there was land in the South Island capable of easy development. Properly developed, this land would be the most suitable in New Zealand for settling sheep farmers—former servicemen yet to be rehabilitated and young farmers who could not obtain farms, said Mr Gilchrist. The development scheme at Lynwood would provide at least 30 economic units. There were many other large tracts of land which would respond similarly. The Seaward Moss area, of about 90,000 acres in eastern Southland, was also being developed. Members of the committee are Messrs E. C. Bathurst (Ashburton). V. Chittock (Heriot), W. S. Croft (Geraldine), G. A. Harris (Temuka), M. Wallace (Westland), and J. C. McKenzie (Mossburn).