Government Land Purchase

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 52, 25 November 1930, Page 11

Government Land Purchase

Sir, —I notice in your issue of yes terday’s date that the Government has purchased a property ve dred odd acres near Waipukurau. Lie suming that the price is satisfactory this is all to the good, but even so, it is ap patently intended to divide the P r into four farms only, which means probnhlv that for the smallest section the pur chaser will hi all probability have to have at least £l5OO. This is all.very well, but flic nuestion arises,- is it necessary for tn Government to cater for this of chaser. There are hundreds ot men with from £3OO to £lOOO quite willing and able to take up sections within their financial reach who dannot get a footing and this class does not look so much at whether it will pay. but rather can they hold it and make a borne f s° m . wlucll _ can work besides keeping the bome„o Take up any paper and scan the figure., asked for small holdings under 50 acres, and note the extraordinary prices asked. There are two in tho first eolumn I looked un—2s acres, price ,£3025; cash ; -1«» acres, price £2150, cash £lO5O. You find the same thing from one end of the island t(> My suggestion is that the Government should offer country like I take the block in question to be in sections of from .10 acres to 100—the ten acres would apply to the best of it, but there should be plenty of room for 50-aere sections. .Nothing could be lost by it. because if there were no demand for the smaller sections it would be quite sound to allow an applicant to toke up one or more, but even 10 acres would well keep .two cows, which means a wellfed nig, besides some poultry, which would all go a long way to help the household needs, besides which 12 holdings instead of 4 would soon mean about GO people, men women and children, which would be to the advantage of local business. There is a lot of nonsense talked about giving the children an agricultural bias in school; give the parents a chance to get on a small piece of land when they can sunport themselves, and the bias will soon follow. My contention is that the Government is catering for the wrong class, a class that is well able to take care of itself, instead of keeping those who are very willing to help themselves if given a chance. —I am, etc., HIOI ANO. Tuarangi. November 22.