INCREASED FARMING

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1930, Page 14

INCREASED FARMING

OPPORTUNITY IN NORTH

USE OF NATIVE LANDS

Several phases of tho land settlemout questioa wore referred to by tlie Minister1 of Lauds (tlio Hon. G. W. Forbes) in the course of his reply to a deputation from tho Auckland Laud Settlement and Development League at Auckland. Mr. Forbes said he had made cis visit to tho North to sco what the possibilities were from a practical standpoint. Ho looked to the North more than to any other part of the Dominion for increased farming. It was a healthy time for land settlement, and it seemed that there were people looking for an opportunity to get on Crown lands. Speaking of the suggestion that unemployment might be relieved by employing men in clearing and preparing land, Mr. Forbes said he had asked his advisory boards whether they knew of any blocks of land where this could be done, and had been told that there was no land that could stand the expense, owing to the cost of labour. However, he had decided to try it at To Kauwhata by employing men in clearing blighted wattle, among which noxious weeds had grown. It had been decided that the best way to bring it into use was to stump it. Contracts had been lot, and th© lowest had been received from the Maoris. They cleared about 100 acres and 200 men were sent down to expedite the work. Articles then appeared in the newspapers on the excessive cost. "I considered that by giving men employment and at the same time bringing the land into use for farming it would be advantageous," said Mr. Forbes. "On one side I was asked to provide for the unemployed, and was then immediately attacked for the excessive cost." GROUP SETTLEMENT PLAN. Eeferring to group settlement, Mr. Forbes said the question at tho present time was one of where it could bo applied. He did not know of anywhere it could be applied in New Zealand. Tho temperament of people had to bo considered and thoir attitude toward working under supervision. Beally good land was needed to do it. Ho believed that the greatest success could be achieved by putting a man on the land with the incentive to work long hours on the understanding that when tho land was develoepd he would have a homo and an independent existence. "We are trying to bring in'as much of our land as possible and to make it so that it can be applied for," Mr. Forbes said. "I have been discussing with Sir Apirana Ngata the consolidation of Native blocks in the King Country and 'those- of the Crown, so that they may be dealt with for settlement, and we hope to be able to do something there." \