LAND SETTLEMENT

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14681, 12 May 1908, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

It is evident from tho statement which the Minister of Lands made to a reporter m Wellington yesterday.

that tho decline in the price oi' wool and the hardening of the money market have had little effect upon the demand for land for settlement. From one end of tho colony to the other farmers’ sons and workers who have managed to save a little money are seeking; an opportunity to make homes for themselves, and tho rush for sections at

Otekaiko nml To Arai shows that the renewable lease is quite as popular with the bona fide settler as was the lease-in-perpetuity. The danger of tho moment seems to be that the pressure which is being brought to hear upon the Government to acquire estates hero and estates there may lead to excessive prices being paid for some of tho properties. For years past values have been based on high prices for produce, and owners are not likely to moderate their demands so long as the people aro clamouring for land. Fortunately Mr M’Nab is alive to the perils of the situation, and is not. running after every property that is placed on tlio market. “Wo are going a.s last as wo should do ( with land at its present price,” he said yesterday, and every prudent person will approve of his caution. A few years ago it seemed sale to purchase fairly good land at almost any price, hut the decline in the price of wool and the increased difficulty in obtaining financial assistance have very materially altered tho position, and the large landholders who are placing their properties on the market now are probably a. good deal more influenced by tlio changed conditions than they aro by the operation of the graduated tax. There should bo no need, however, for tho Government to cease acquiring estates for closer settlement. As soon as the value of land has adjusted itself to tho reduced prices, it will he perfectly safe to make tho fullest use of the Land for Settlements Act. There aro still thousands of acres capable of profitable subdivision, and if we are to have less prosperous times it is all the more important that many hands should be employed in maintaining the productiveness of the dominion. There is one class of very desirable settlement that would be stimulated by tho sub-division of some of the large pastoral properties. Tho Crown itself owns a number of runs in Canterbury and Otago that could comfortably maintain nine or ten times ns many people as they are maintaining now. We think we are correct in saving that one owner, in spite of all tlio legislation towards limitation, has managed to retain four runs from which he is shearing upwards of 100,000 sheep a year, and that there aro others whose operations are on much the same scale. These gentlemen would suffer no great hardship in being required to content themselves with the occupation of one property. Tt would bo wise for tho Minister to obtain a report from a thoroughly qualified expert on this aspect of the settlement question. Neither the Land Purchase Board nor the Land Boards have sufficient practical knowledge to advise him very definitely on the capacity and value of pastoral property, and we are afraid that the interests of the country have suffered in consequence. It might he a very good thing, indeed, if an expert were called in to assist these bodies whenever they are required to deal with property of this character. We fancy that his presence would have saved the country from many serious mistakes that have been made in the past.