LAND POLICY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 17, 15 October 1926, Page 10

LAND POLICY

MANY HOLDINGS MUCH TOO LARGE HELP FOR SETTLERS IN DIFFICULTIES MINISTER’S PROPOSALS Dominion Special. Auckland, October 14. Tlie Minister of Lauds (Hon. A. D. McLeod) delivered a vigorous address at Papakura last night, when he replied to criticisms of his policy. “I know enough of the general settlement of this and other countries,” he said, “to know tba* where lands be :..i

unoccupied for long periods something more is responsible than that which meets the eye. The men who have developed this countri have not been fools in their judgment of tin quality of lam’ In the bulk <> r

unoccupied lands in the Auckland province there are great future possibilities, both in respect of production and population carrying capacity. Bull development, however, will not take place in a day, nor yet in a generation. “I feel certain that the turn over from the raising of cattle and sheep to dairying has left hundreds, if not thousands, of holdings much too large for profitable occupation or high development. From personal examination of many such cases, I find many splendid settlers battling along in an endeavour to develop from 400 to 700 acres, when for dairying purposes they should be concentrating their efforts on 100 or 150 acres. In too many cases their finances are so hopelessly involved with successive mortgages, that it is impossible for them to sell a portion of tlieir land without having the whole of the mortgage called up by the mortgagees.

I am at present considering this aspect of the position, and next session hope to obtain legislative authority for a scheme whereby the Government will be empowered to grant financial assistance, so that settlers so situated will be able to retain their homestead and the necessarv acreage of land, and to dispose of the balance in sub-divisions to those seeking land who have a certain amount of capita] at their disposal.

“I recognise that such a policy’ will entail still greater borrowing, but with careful administration it will assuredly mean less risk of loss to the country as a whole than would result in a wholesale placing'of men without any capital on the bulk of our remaining unoccupied lands Possessing a long personal experience of land and its settlement difficulties, three courses presented themselves to

me. Any sensible man will recognise that' it would be impossible to follow all of these at the same time. The first was to save those already upon the land wherever possible; the second, to purchase' land for settlement and thus to some extent prevent'wholesale deflation; and third, to settle those requiring land on areas as yet unoccupied.

"A rapid summing-up of the position soon convinced me that to save those already on land was the Government’s first duty, and that much borrowing would be necessary to achieve that end. If we, as a Government, putting the country’s stability before all other considerations, were not aware of the amount of borrowing the country could reasonably stand, those lending were not slow in informing us of their opinion. I confess nothing to which anv of my colleagues will take exception when I say that, as a Government, we fully recognise that 'this country’s borrowings have reached well toward the safety limit, and, notwithstanding repeated endeavours to reduce, we find neither the Press nor the public desirous of helping the Government to that end.”