SETTLEMENT OUT BACK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 58, 7 February 1925, Page 4

SETTLEMENT OUT BACK.

"FREEHOLD SYSTEM ONLY WAY." AUCKLAND, Feb. 5. Some remarks on the subject of land tenure were made by the Hon. A. D. Mo Leod (Minister of Lands) at Tokoroa. A request was previously made to the. Minister that an education reserve and Crown lands adjoining Tokoroa. should be settled, and that the land should be capable of being freeholded. It was urged that the country was the raw material and a roan's labour and capital were the things of value. A settler wished to live on his own section and have the right to sell; he was not encouraged to the same extent as a Crown tenant. In reply, the Minister said that tho freehold had been one of the chief planks of the Government platform, and it had not wavered on that point. Tho proper development of back-block settlement could not be done without absolute security ot tenure. The pioneer settlers, left tho Old Country because thoy had not got secure tenure, and they desired to get on land which would be assured to £heir children and their children's children. The freehold system was the only one by which to settle the backblocks, and only the national endowment lands and education reserves re mained to which the freehold could' not "be applied. He hoped that while he was Minister everyone, as far as the rural population was concerned, would have the right of the freehold. i . . Some city peoplo, added the Minister, got hold of the writings of theorists, read them before cosy fires, and then told people how to bring land into productivity. The whole thing was absolute bosh, and the talk of men who had never been in the back country. He could tell them how land could bo brought into productivity—by the freehold tenure. Mr F. F. Hockly, M.P., said that he hoped the Minister would introduce legislation this year for the freeholding of endowment lands. ' -