SETTLEMENT OF UNOCCUPIED LANDS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3491, 29 October 1926, Page 7

SETTLEMENT OF UNOCCUPIED LANDS

Generous Offer by Minister of Lands

GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY FOR

IMPROVEMENT

[Per Press Association.] WEBBINGTON, Bast Night,

In Auckland recently, the Hon. A. D. Mcßeod, Minister for Bands, referred to the settlement of unoccupied Crown lands, and made a statement to the effect that ho would bo prepared to hand over to any Association, at bare survey costs, an area of from 10,000 to 15,000 acres of gum or pumice lands, and that, provided it subdivided the land successfully into small farms, he would be prepared to recommend Cabinet to provide a subsidy of 25 par cent.

When asked to-day whether he had anything to add to Übs statement, the Minister said that the offer still hold good, and that if any reputable set of men came forward, ho would ask Parliament to pass the necessary legislation to make the conditions binding on all parties. Ho fully recognised the responsibility attached 1 o such an offer, but he never made offers without first making himself conversant with all the facts of the case. “In certain political circles an effort is being made to lay at the door of the Party with which f am associated, all the ills which have fallen upon the man on the land during recent years. This may be fair Party politics, but if one wished to retaliate in kind, it would not be hard to show that the great majority Of those on dctcrioratacd lands now applying for reductions of rent and financial assistance, were settled upon their holdings by Governments in power prior to 1912, and left in all too many cases withous roads or bridges of any kind. Furthermore the large percentages arc original settlers, who did not take land up at the inflated prices ruling during the war period.” After dealing fully with the question of unoccupied Crown lands and lands under cultivation, Mr, Mcßeod said: “Bet me say that after moving about the country as I do, I am much more concerned about the condition of much of our occupied land, than I am about the unoccupied lands. The enormous increase of costs as compared with the remarkably small increase in net overseas values of our primary products is undoubtedly forcing much land out of profitable occupation, and this is a much more serious Dominion problem than the bringing in of the relatively few remaining acres of unoccupied Crown lands.”