LAND SETTLEMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 8 September 1926, Page 5

LAND SETTLEMENT

DIFFICULTIES OF THE SITUATION DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT (By Telegraph—Special to The Mail) WELLINGTON, This Day. The difficulties facing the Government in the settlement of land were, discussed in the House of Representatives, yesterday afternoon, when the Land for Settlement .Report was presented. Mr J. 0. Rollcston said that he thought- a great deal more .could be done in the settlement of waste land's;. ./The Minister had stated that it would’"cost £2500 to put a settler on virgin land, and that he was very doubtful whether such expenditure was justified. A very great deal of land was rapidly becoming a liability on the State through being overrun with rabbits and noxious weeds. Re urged the Minister to tackle the question as rnpilv as possible. Mr Rollcston stressed the necessity of putting men on virgin lands. The man who undertook virgin land undertook no mean task and he was deserving of everv assistance

The only way to open up second class land, said Air Campbell, was to put men with some means on the land and give them security of tenure. Mr D. Bmldo supported the view expressed by Mr Campbell. The only way to encourage land settlement, so far as people with small means were eoneerned. was to put them on good land. Mr Glenn said that- a very big problem faced the Minister of Hands in New Zealand. The difficulty, of dealing with noxious weeds and pests was. in itself, a very big problem, although the Minister of Lands was not actually responsible for that. 'The whole question was whether they were going to settle lower class lands. If it could not be done economically, then they' should consider whether they should not plant trees at £2 an acre. 'The matter was one on which there should he eo-opera-tion between the Ministers of [.and and Agriculture. Mr A. Hamilton said it, was being stated that many lands were not being settled, as it cost ton pinch to put people on them, and that the costs of production were, too high. While some people said that, it had to he admitted that other lands were too cheap. We were getting dangerously near the point where a man was not getting sufficient reward for the improvements he effected on the land. It would he wise hoi to allow Capital and Labour to be better rewarded in other directions than in improving land. In reply, Mr McLeod said that his experience had shown there was little chance of settling a man much under £4OOO. Mr Bari ram: “Publish that at llnine." The Minister: “I’ll leave the lion, gentleman lo do that. 1 have no doubt he will.”

Continuing, the Minister said the, points mentioned by Air Rollcston were important and a solution of the problems must be found. He bad found that in the Waitomo and other districts, some men had more land than they really required. When they wanted to sell a portion they found that the mortgagees would not- split the mortgages up. He would like to .have some means whereby mortgages could lie split in a manner . that would- assist those who wanted to get rid of part of their burden. U he could do so. he would frame legislation on the po-int. lint not this session. Of course, lie admitted -that what Mr Hamilton said about improvements was true, and then it was a fact also- that- the costs of production had gone up tremendously. Speaking of the abandonment -of ’farms;. Mr-McLeod said that he had 200 abandoned farms in the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Account. Of that number. over 150 were located in Auckland, part of Nelson, Westland and in a portion of the northern part of the Wellington Land Districts tip the Wanganui llivc-r. The remaining 50 or 40 wenscattered over the rest of New Zealand. There was a real difficulty and most of the land in the North .Auckland and Auckland was not. land purchased at a high price, but Crown land purchased 30 years ago-. The men. who had been settled on these abandoned lands were not “duds,” but soldiers who knew nil about the land. Those lands were, back on the Government's hands. How they were to be settled without writing off. not- a- third, but a tremendous Inf. bad to be discovered. It was useless, however, to go throwing good money after bad, until they had found better means of dealing with the problem than they had to-day.

Referring to what Mr Campbell had said, the Minister said that it was very difficult to get men to invest in second class land.

Mr Campbell: “Give them a litile sc emit v.”

The Minister said that the restrictions as to area, which were rightly put into ibe law, must he maintained' as far as freehold was concerned. 'This country could not afford to allow the aggregation of large holdings to go on again.