TAUPO LAND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 29, 21 January 1929, Page 8

TAUPO LAND

SETTLEMENT question.

Will it pay?

Discussing the settlement of Taupo land the Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, said it was even possible to make rocks grow something if people were prepared to spent enough money on them. He intended shortly to visit Taupo. He had heard various statements regarding the land there, some detrimental and some praising the possibilities. The question was whether it would pay, not altogether in the narrow sense of producing an actual profit to the Government, but in the broader sense of becoming a national asset when peopled. There would be no sense in spending £3 to produce £l, added the Minister. “We can,” proceeded Mr. Forbes, “place men on the land and merely increase our population and the national burden. Our aim, however, is not only to increase the population on the land, hut to increase th© production.” The Minister added that Cabinet had discussed several important land proposals which were approaching the stage of finalisation. He said also that the conference of Crown Land Commissioners, which he was calling to discuss the whole question of the lands available for settlement, should go a long way towards solving problems whih at present confronted the Government.