The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1929. A LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 131, 27 February 1929, Page 10

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1929. A LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME

On the surface, the scheme outlined by the'Minister of Public Works for breaking in settlement lands and assisting the settlers to bring them to the paying point has commendable features. Mr. Ransom says that there is about a million available for land purchase. The Government is prepared to buy, at reasonable prices, land suitable for cutting up into small farms. It is proposed to prepare tl/ese and suitable Crown lands for settlement by roading. breaking them in, and bringing them to a state of production. They will then be surveyed and subdivided into suitable allotments,.preference being given to those who had been working on the block during the breaking-in stage. Mr. Ransom hopes that the scheme will find occupation for unemployed workers as well as others. Movable huts would be provided for, the development workers, and afterwards sold to the settlers at, say, £5O each. Having perused the proposal thus far, it has probably occurred to the reader to ask how this scheme is to be financed. There are two items in the proposition. The first is the, million pounds now available for buying the land. The second is the money which will be required for breaking it in. Parliament is to be asked to provide it. How is it proposed to do this ? ■

The taxpayer, of course, will have to find the money in the first instance. He will naturally expect that the expenditure should in some .way. or other be reproductive. The cost of breaking in, the land will be added to the price per acre. The farms are not likely to be broken in as cheaply as would be the case if the work were done by experienced farmers working their own farms. At the same time, it is quite possible that by large-scale development operations bringing the land up to the production stage, the individual settler may find it. a cheaper proposition to pay more for his farm if he can avoid thereby the difficulty of the initial financing during the unproductive period. ; The idea is not new; but it has a good deal to commend it. It would require efficient supervision and sound judgment in the selection of the.areas, to be ;utilised, as well as in the selection of the men to be placed on the land. The Minister mentions, for example, that the scheme would provide relief work for unemployed Though this might be a useful palliative 'for such a social emergency, it must be remembered that unemployed relief works are not economic propositions. Unless the workers for these breaking-in operations were carefully chosen, the overhead charges on the scheme might become excessive, and either the settlers or the country would have to meet the loss. The more one looks . into the scheme the more one is convinced that it must be very carefully safeguarded against wasteful administration.

In outlining the scheme Mr. Ransom said that he was anticipating the policy of his colleague, the Minister of Lands. Mr. Forbes no doubt will take an < early opportunity of filling in the. details of the rough , sketch presented to an interested public by the Minister of Public Works. Both gentlemen probably are aware that the problem of land- settlement is not merely how. to get people on the land, but how to keep them there.