LAND SETTLEMENT PLAN

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 23 November 1932, Page 9

LAND SETTLEMENT PLAN

SCHEME FOR UNEMPLOYED.

COUNTRY'S GOODWILL ASKED

After a further session at Wellington on Tuesday the departmental conference initiated by the Minister of Employment, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, finally decided upon ai scheme of land settlement for the relief of unemployment. After being submitted for criticism to the Treasury, the scheme will probably be brought before the Cabinet this week, and will then, as far as it requires* legislation, be introduced into the House of Representatives, reports the “Dominion.” While he made it clear that he was not yet in a position to discuss* _ the details of the scheme, Mr Coates indicated in an interview that the major difficulty would be to launch it with no more resources than “the smell of an oil rag.” Reports* have gone out from Wellington that the scheme would depend on the compulsory acquisition of land, but Mr Coates made it clear that the element of compulsion, if it were introduced at all, would be kept well in the background. It was realised, he said, that a scheme of this kind could only be successful if it were accepted and supported by the people. If the Government had to compel its acceptance there was little to be gained.

It is understood that the scheme involves the Government leasing, for a period, areas of land not actively cultivated and having power to exercise certain rights* at the end of that period. If the Government is given powers for the compulsory acquisition of land, thev will be new only insofar as* they apply to leaseholds. Actually the Government has had authority to acquire land by compulsion since 1894, and the following 13 estates, comprising 229,327 acres, and providing a total of 1006 holdings, were all compulsorily taken: Ardgowan. Argyll, Carrington, Culverden. Flaxhourne. Forest Gate, Hatuina. Kumeroa, Lin dsn v. Matamatn, Tawaha, Te Arai and Wnimana. Although no land* for settlement has been taken in this way since 1909, the Government’s powers still remain* and were expressed as recently as 1925 in the consolidated Land for Settlements Act.

It is interesting to* note that the Cheviot Estate is not included amoiw the propirties which were secured under compulsion. Actually it was purchased under a special provision of the* Land and Income Tax Assessment Act. 1891. The owners of the estate were dissatisfied with the assessment placed on the property, and* called upon the Commissioner of Taxes to purchase it at their valuation. Tie l disposal of the estate was authorised under the Cheviot Estate Disposition ’Act, 1893.