KIWI SETTLEMENT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22200, 10 December 1946, Page 6

KIWI SETTLEMENT

GRADED ONE-FIFTH ON SECTIONS GISBORNE-HAWKE’S BAY Out of a total of 1111 servicemen of the late war who are seeking rehabilitation by way of land settlement in the Gisborne and Hawke’s Ray districts, only 281 have been settled to date and 32 others arc receiving wages for developmental work with the promise of sections when properties on which they are working arc ready for subdivision. Information to this effect was given by Mr. P. H. G. Bennett, servicemen’s representative on the Land Settlement Board, speaking at a conference in Napier on Friday, at which the Gisborne Returned Services’ Association was represented by Messrs. E. R. Black, P. J. Andrews and A. H. Miller. Other delegates represented Napier, Hastings, Dannevirke. Wairoa, Waipaoa, Taradale. Tutira, VVairarapa, Waipukurau and Eketahuna, and Mr. C. V. Chamberlain, Wellington-East Coast district vice-president of the New; Zealand Returned Services' Association, presided over animated discussions on a large number of remits. Classification List In his contribution to the discussion, Mr. Bennett stated that men graded A for farming and now awaiting settlement in the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne area were classified as under: Dairy. 145; sheep, 495; mixed sheep and dairy, 57; sheep and cropping, 6; agriculture, 5; bees, 3: poultry, 4; pigs, 1; fruit, 21; market gardening, 11; viticulture, 3; farmlets, 16; total, 767. In addition, 270 had been graded B and 74 graded C, giving a grand total of 1111 aspirants for land settlement. The conference placed a good deal of weight upon a recommendation that the subdivision of lands now held by the Government should be speeded up, one delegate stating that two blocks in the Tutira area had been held for years by the Crown, but were nowhere near ready for actual settlement. At the present rate, he observed, the blocks would not be ready until the next war.

Choice of Land

Government policy regarding the choice of settlement land came under brisk discussion, and it was the collective opinion of delegates that too much emphasis was being placed on the need for first-class land.

Since this qualification tended to restrict drastically the range of land acquisition, with consequent long delays in meeting the requirements of intending settlers, it was held that second-class land should be taken where necessary. The surplus land held on behalf of absentee owners was regarded as especially suitable for acquisition.

A further step on the road to dispatch for settlement plans was proposed by the conference, in the form of an amendment to the present methods of improving land prior to occupation by ballotees. Delegates favoured a remit from the Tutira branch proposing that where men were prepared to undertake improvements themselves they should be given the chance to go ahead, the Rehabilitation Department providing the finance.