LAND SETTLEMENT

Feilding Star, Volume 7, Issue 2134, 13 February 1929, Page 5

LAND SETTLEMENT

A DIFFTCTLt PROBLEM

RECOMMENDATIONS OF RE-

CENT CONFERENCE

(Per Press Association L

Wellington, Feb. 12.

Considerable; difficulties are eonfronting tbe Government in its endeavour t 0 promote a scheme which will ensure rapid and closer settlement upon the land.

It is learned from a reliable source that tfie Government was disappointed by the recommendations of the Conference of Commissioners .of Crown Lands which recently sat in Wellington t 0 discuss the situation and to make a report to the Hon. G. AY. Forbes.

The general opinion of_ that conference appears to have been that to purchase many estates, sub-divide them and sell them for settlement at a price which would make profitable- farming possible was not feasible. There is an additional drag In the fact that- the Lands for Settlement Act provides for a. rebate of up to TO per cent, upon the lands taken up and that the only way to make tins rebate is to load, the estimated amount- upon the price of the land in the first place. Another an. • :■»'• r to which the Commissioners drew the attention of the Government was linked with the question of opening up new country. The problem which has been put to the Minister is: Should the cost of roading new country be loaded on to the- land, or should it be a charge upon the consolidated- fund?