ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1911. SOME LAND QUESTIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 185, 12 August 1911, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1911. SOME LAND QUESTIONS.

Whilst gmng the Government every oredif for .the greatly increased energy which is being t>xhiMted in the acquisition and opening up to European settlement of the native-owned lands of the North Island, we. are sorry to notice of late years an annually diminished area acquired under the Lands for Settlement Act. It is true that there is a difficulty in obtaining land at a resisonable price; but the compulsory clauses arei there, to be used, if necessary, and we cannot altogether understand why the Government a,re so chary about putting them into force. There is, it is true, the now Land Settlement Finance scheme: but so farvthe operations of this schiemo haje been very much ip-std-ietect?* jmsl 'only estates of compw.ra,tively, limited area have been settled on this system. That it is becoming almost impossible for man of limited means to obtain land in this island is notorious, and whilst th© flood of new Settlement must necessarily run faster in the • North Island, where unoccupied land is po much more plentiful, it seems a great pity that small settlement in the South Island is not more energetically pushed forward. There is, too, a, wide and growing public opinion that the ballot system, always open to abuse, ■ has of recent years been very carelessly admin istored by the Lands Department and the Crown Lands Boards. In the Legislative Council on Tuesday last the Hon. Mr Ansfcey gave somtt curious and disquieting information as to how sonip Mackenzie Countiy' pastoral runs were disposed of. 'Mr Ansfcey, who is, as ( a rule, a- strong Government supporter, did not hesitate to say that in the disposal of these pastoral runs the interests' of the genuine settlor-had been sacrificed'in favor of those of the mere land speculator. Up stated that he had watched the disposal of the runs at Timiaru, and it was the saddest sight he bad seen in his life. Fourteen sections wc-e balloted for on the first day, and land speculators of every description wer# encouraged to go in. Many of them openly boasted that they never intended to take the land up or to put so much as a single sheep thereon, but simply siecured it with the inbention of .selling out the goodwill. Under such circumstances the bona fide settlers, of whom there were plenty, wore entirely swamped out. Of the 167 applicants not more than seventeen were bon.i fide settlers. The conditions under which fourteen more runs wore sold by auction were even worse than these. Eleven were cases of pure aggregation in one way and another; only three were separate occupations. One man secured land ■which ought to have been divided between at least five bona fide resident settlers,; another got two big runs. A third ,pase was that of a man who already held one run in his own name and1, another in the name of his wife, while at this sale he bought still j another in the name of Ms son, a boy of seventeen years old at school! If th© facts are actually as they were j stated by Mr Anstey, it is evident | that in South Canterbury at least ; the ballot system is being adminisI terod in a fkgrantly improper way, ! arid it is to bo hoped that the matter will at once engage the attention of the Lands Department. As Mr Anstey says, unless the Government, or the Lands Commissioners, change their ways, other, grazing runs in the Mackenzie Country which are to be offered very shortly will be snapped up in tho same way. At present the portfolio of Lands is held by the ! Prime Minister; but we have always

contended tluat the portfolios of Minister for Finance and Post and Telegraphs provide quite enough work for the gentleman who holds them to carry out properly, and that w* should return to the old system where there was a separate Minister for Lands, who confined himself strictly to the work of land acquisition and land settlement. No doubt Sir Joseph Ward does his best withthe Lands portfolio; but it stands to reason that a huge department such as the Lands Department should have as its Ministerial head a gentleman who should devote special attention to land matters. It is rumored that after the general election there will be some Cabinet changes', and an allround re-arrangement of the portfolios held by the various Ministers. When this takes place We hope to see the Lands -portfolio handed to a Minister who possesses an intimate "knowledge of land settlement, who will take on his shoulders the charge jiof no other portfolio, but who will set to work to infuse greater vigor in [the operations of the Lands.Depart--I ment. ' ■ ■■•>■■-.