LAND SETTLEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1939, Page 20

LAND SETTLEMENT

USE OF NEW METHODS

ADVANTAGE OF MACHINES

The value of high-powered machinery in making land readily available for settlement was emphasised by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview last«night, when commenting on the demonstrations attended by Ministers on the West Coast this week. Mr. Savage said that what the Government had in mind was to revolutionise the preparation oi land for settlement. It was hoped by the use of modern methods to bring land tq a stage at which it was almost ready to produce before settlers go on it.

"In the past settlers have very often been placed on holdings in the backblocks, with, the result that before they were able to obtain any return they were in debt to everybody," said the Prime Minister. "We are not going back to the old methods. I know from my own experience something of the primitive methods that have been adopted in the past. No doubt, by the use of modern machinery land can be prepared for settlement for a quarter of the cost involved under the very best efforts in the past.

"As soon as we are satisfied that machinery offers the best method of clearing land for settlement it will be our job to get hold of land adjacent to railways and highways and proceed with the work of clearing it. No. doubt some of the men engaged in this work -will become occupants of the land they assist, to clear, and make their livelihood from it. We are out to increase production, not only from the secondary industries but from the primary industries as well. Thousands of men in this country are anxious to get on a decent piece of land from which they will be able to obtain a return almost immediately. I can visualise land first being cleared, fenced, and cultivated, and housing accommodation provided, so that potential settlers can go straight to work and produce."