SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 142, 13 December 1923, Page 6

SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE

In the opinion of members of the Empire Settlement Delegation, NewZealand cannot greatly accelerate her settlement policy without heavy expenditure. An Auckland meeting, called by the Immigration and Land Settlement League, and representing the Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Association, Farmers' Union, and other bodies, has expressed the view that Government activity would make a difference. We ourselves have held that greater' cooperation of Government and private effort would produce better results from the present' expenditure; but we have not felt justified in advocating a big increase in Government spending for migration. The Auckland League favours raising as much' money "as may be available in terms of the Empire Settlement -Act for the settlement of British migrants under the group system; but it does not indicate' where the group system should be put in operation. For the rest, its proposals are that a free hand should be given to private enterprise by adjusting taxation and encouraging the use of private capital for road and railway building and the development of "unproductive land. This question of taxation has been raised before, and, if we remember rightly, the Government refusal to meet the request arose from the difficulty of distinguishing between the speculative holder of unimproved land and the capitalist who made pioneering a business. It is possible that the problem will bear re-examination. The encouragement of private enterprise in road and railway construction is a separate problem, and not one to "be disposed of by a half-hour's debate in public meeting.