LAND SETTLEMENT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 267, 7 August 1941, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

Land settlement, as a major policy, has not figured prominently in the last few years. There are large estates, purchased for purposes of subdivision and settlement before the present Government took office, which have not yet been made available. Ihe explanation is that the Government prefers the establishment of State farms, with employees or, on dairying country, sharemilkers, rather than individual ownership, especially where the occupier has a right to acquire the freehold. This trend is seen in the figures relating. to holdings held under one of the most popular tenures the Dominion has known—occupation with right of purchase. In 1935-36 there were 2736 holdings in this group, with a total area of 763,000 acres. Last year the number of holdings had dropped to only 964, and the area to 257,000 acres. No doubt many occupiers completed their payments and obtained their titles, but it is certain that had other applicants for land been given the opportunity to acquire it on an O.R.P. basis they would have taken it. Last year purchases under the Lands for Settlement Act aggregated 31,000 acres, or more than the total for the preceding five years. Five blocks, with an area of over 14,000 acres, are situated in the light pumice country in the South Auckland district and 10 properties in Canterbury—in all 7268 acres—are to be developed as irrigation units. These areas, if subdivided, will, it can be taken for granted, be offered under some leasehold tenure. They may, like other properties, be worked as State farms. But it is interesting to note that the Socialist Government, although strongly opposed to the freehold has not been able to banish the preference that men working the land show for that tenure. When the Government took office there were 18,850,000 acres of Crown land held under various leases and by March 31 last that total had fallen to 17,489,000 acres. Land settlement, like many other activities, must be adversely affected by the war. Prospective settlers, young men with the strength and experience to develop land, have enlisted for service overseas. Many of them will be keen to acquire a holding on their return, and the best prospect that could be offered to them would be that of eventually making the property their own.