CLOSER SETTLEMENT. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER FOR LANDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1908, Page 8

CLOSER SETTLEMENT. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER FOR LANDS.

[BT TELBGBAPH. —PBE3S ASSOCIATION.] FEILDING, This Day. During hi 3 visit to the Feilding dis trict yesterday afternoon, the Minister for Lauds received a deputation at Cheltenham, which pointed out the desirability of acquiring some estates in the district for closer settlement. These estates included Messrs. Elkington's, Johnston's, and E. J. Riddiford's, tho latter, it being pointed out, being an absentee. It was pointed ~>\st *-hat the land could bo well cut up into from £0 to 100 acre farms. Replying, tho Minister said it was dasi rable to havo closer settlement in a fertile district like Cheltenham, so at to work the lsmd to the fullest' extent. It seemed a pity that such land should be held iii such large areas, 'employing so few people. He did not know any place where closer settlement could ba more advantageously carried out than at Cheltenham. He did not like to have to enforce the compulsory clause of the Act, always preferring to negotiate for voluntary sale. Immediately on his return to Wellington he would instruct the chairman of the Land Purchase Board to communicate with the owners of the land referred to to ascertain whether whether they would dispose of the land at a reasonable figure. If not, the further question arises : What step the Government should take if owners of large properties did not recognise that the time had come- when land must be subdivided. They could not be allowed to block closer settlement, and the question of compulsory acquisition must come in. I