Evaluation Of Land Use “Essential”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31134, 10 August 1966, Page 3

Evaluation Of Land Use “Essential”

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, August 9. The utilisation of undeveloped land in New Zealand should be decided by economic analysis, rather than on the present physical consideration of soil type, stock-carrying capacity and land valuation, Professor J. T. Ward, professor of economics at Waikato University, told the Waikato branch of the Economic Society last night.

There would soon be a great deal of competition between forestry and agriculture for land and other resources, he said. Land development was fundamental to New Zealand’s economy and the Lands Department had been bringing into production between 40,000 and 50,000 acres a year for the last 15 years. Only recently, however, had the advantages New Zealand had in forestry been recognised. The Forest Service now estimated that by 2000 New Zealand could be producing 90 per cent of its pulp and timber requirements and have an export trade of £6O million a year. In order to achieve this it wanted to plant another 1,000,000 acres in trees. “An expansion of forestry

on this scale necessarily Involves competition with agriculture for land and other resources. This competition comes to a head when the Lands Department and the Forest Service both wish to develop the same block of land.” The present procedure for resolving such conflicts was through the convening of land utilisation committees which submitted their recommendations to the Land Settlement Board. “These committees do not make a detailed economic analysis of specific cases," he said. "They base their recommendations primarily on physical considerations, including soil types, stockcarrying capacity, and some reference to the valuation of the land.”