LAND SETTLEMENT IN CENTRAL OTAGO

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 265, 5 August 1929, Page 12

LAND SETTLEMENT IN CENTRAL OTAGO

A further reply by “Back Blocks Settler” to “Ex Central” deals at considerable length with the question of the subdivision question of leasehold lauds in Central Otago. The correspondent repeats that the great bulk of the Central Ota 2 o leasehold land has already been subdivided as closely as the nature of the country permits, and urges that if the policy of subdivision is so carried out to extremes, and there is a setback in wool prices, together wjjh a bad snow year, there would be a trail of disaster wherever this short-sighted policy had operated. The closer subdivision of these high country runs would, it is argued, ruin the present runholders, and the Government would find that the new tenants would be unable to carry on without considerable financial assistance. It would, the correspondent urges, be a repetition of the unfortunate soldier settlement policy. The letter concludes as follows: — “Closer settlement op judicious lines is a very good thing, but why pick out Central Otago where closer settlement has already been carried out to greater lengths than anywhere else in New Zealand.’ “To talk about 500 ewes on high country being sufficient for a man to rear and educate a family on is absurd. ‘Ex Central’ knows that high country sheep do not return anything like as much per head as sheep on ordinary farm lands — the wool clip is much lighter; the lambing percentage in some years is so small as to leave no surplus stock for sale; the death-rate is greater than on ordinary farms, and the working expenses per head of stock are very much larger. Artificial feed has to be grown at great expense; rabbits must be kept down (no small item), and cartage costs more than in the more productive districts closer to the centres. Also, conditions generally are harder in Central Otago that in most of the farming districts of New Zealand. “ ‘Ex Central’ talks about ‘respect for property.’ This , must also be evidenced in respect for lenses granted to the men who undertook the heavy risks, of investing their capital nnd labour in Central Otngo when that district was little more than n barren waste. “Neither ‘Ex Central’ or Mr. Bodkin acknowledge in any shape or form the rights of the man on leasehold land—this is, of course, n straight-out Labour Party platform: but. have we n Labour Party in New Zealand? Personally r have every confidence that the rights of farmers on leasehold land will bo respected just ns much bv the United. Party ns they were by the Reform Party.”