The Dominion. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1908. THE NAI NAI LAND PURCHASE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 224, 15 June 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1908. THE NAI NAI LAND PURCHASE.

In another part of this issuo wo give somo further particulars relating 1 to the Government's-purchaso of 143 acres of swampy land at Nai Nai as a site for workers' homes. In dealing with the matter on Friday we enumerated the objections to this transaction, which appeared to us to call for public notice for: tho doubts which it raised conccrning the manner in which the Govornment exercises its very extensive land-purchas-ing powers. Tho land in question is not only damp, sour soil, but is situated three miles from the railway station, and the price paid -for it was more than double the sum that Me. Leigh ,paid for it two years earlier.- A statement has been published, obviously under inspiration, by way of reply to our criticisms, and, two things in this statement. will strike anybody who examines it. In tho first place, it leaves untouched or : unrefuted all, our objections. Further, it sets out that .'' when the present Ministry, camo into office, the Hon. J. A.' Millar, Minister for Labour, had charge of the matter, and 'has since visited the block." Reading this sentence, the. public could only suppose it to mean that Mr. Millar had approved of the land, especially as it is further stated that an: official visit to the property last winter found it " quite fit for the purposes for which it was acquired." These 1 statements' read curiously beside the declaration of Mr. Millar, printed to-day, that the land is useless for the purpose of workers' homes.

If there had been no other reason why the Government should not have bought the land at twice tho price paid for it two years before by its owner,' it should have: been sufficient - that tho last place in which a settlement for city workers should be established by the Government is a bleak tract of land throe miles distant from the noarest railway l station, or eleven miles distant from the city. How many city workers are likely to be 1 attracted by the proSpect of obtaining a cheap home if they have to walk over three miles through the. darkness after arriving at Lower Hutt from tho city on a winter evening? Tho inspired statement contains no reference to this aspect of the venture, and it is by no means the least condemnatory aspect of a very bad bargain indeed. Investigations made by one of our representatives confirm our observations upon the dampness and genoral disagreeableness of the place as a site for a workors' settlement. With drainage tho natural disadvantages of "The Swamp," as it is called in the district, may bo considerably lessened, but this will' have involved such a considerable outlay that tho disparity between tho price paid Ijy the Government and tho suitability of tho thing bought will be greater than'ever. At £10,000 in 1903 the property was no doubt a sound bargain- as a speculative investment, but it was quite another matter, for the Government to pay £21,000 for the property in 1905. Foresight and forethought aro qualities that one should expect from the authorities responsible for carrying out tho policy of establishing workers' settlements, and any necessity that existed in 1905 for the establishment of such ,a settlement in tho Lowor Hutt valley must have existed in 1903. The Government may dislike any suggestion that it buys its land haphazard, and as tho ro< suit of a sudden and never-before con*

sidered idea, but to repudiate this charge of short-sightedness it must show some reason why it overlooked tho Nai Nai property in 1903. Anybody, apparently, can pick up bargains in land except tho Government. Even when every allowance is made for the remarkable absence of intelligence from tho policy that directed the purchase—how remarkable may be judged from the promptness with which. Mr. Millaii bundled the land out of his Department—the public may still ably feel that the matter requires further ventilation in Parliament. At the very least the public is entitled to know why, having determined to buy a block of quite unsuitable land, the Government did not endeavour, by invoking the Compensation Court, to make its bargain less bad than it was.