LAND SETTLEMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14978, 26 April 1909, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT.

We are glad to see that the member for Geraldine is following up his success in inducing the Government to acquire tho Orari Gorge Estate with some sensible suggestions for' the subdivision of the property. Mr Buxton’s local knowledge and hie practical experience on the land enable him to speak with some authority on this question, and wo trust tho Land Board will give his views the weight to which they are undoubtedly entitled. If any considerable portion of the estate can be cut up into farms of 100 or 200 acres each, the freehold will provide homes for thirty or thirty-five settlers, and the leasehold for three or four more. This would offer a very favourable contrast, from the public point of view, to the subdivision of tho Culverden Estate. The Culverden Estate consisted of 25,540 acres and was divided into only twenty-nino sections, the capital value of the allotments running at alf figures from £3OOO to £14,000. This certainly was not the kind of settlement Sir John M’Kenzie contemplated when he placed tho Land for Settlements Act upon tho Statute Book. The freehold on the Orari Gorgo Estate consists of about 8000 acres, and under Mr Buxton’s scheme this area would be divided, as we have soon, into thirty or thirty-five farms, and probably would support twice as many souls as are to be found at Culverden. We think Sir Joseph Ward may bo trusted to see that applicants for sections at Orari are given facilities for establishing their qualifications without wasting time and money in travelling long distances to attend a special meeting of the Land Board. There is no reason why they should not bo examined by tho land officer nearest to their own doors, or, indeed, why they should not bo allowed to mako a simple declaration beforo a magistrate who was acquainted with the requirements of tho law. Wo think, too, that tho new Minister of Lands will agree with Mr Buxton that experience and character should count at least as much as capital in estimating a man’s prospects of becoming a successful settler. The Land Boards have been insisting lately upon an applicant possessing an amount equal to three years’ rent before lie can entor tho ballot, but practical men recognise that a tenant with knowledge and determination is much more likely to prove satisfactory to his landlord than is one lacking these qualifications even if he has a littlo more capital, perhaps placed at his disposal by some confiding friend.