LAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15235, 24 February 1913, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT.

It has been customary for interested politicians to accuse Mr. Massey and his supporters of having more regard for the well-being of the large landowner than of the small farmer and the land seeker. Evidence to the contrar, • is furnished in this morning's Herald. Since the present -Government came into office money has been exceptionally tight and many claims on the public purse have had to be refused. In spite of this Mr. Massey has found this summer £3000 to purchase dairy stock for improved farm settlers who are struggling, on small capital, to make homes for themselves. A • further indication of the sympathy of the present Administration with the small farmer is to be found in Mr. Massey's statement that while it is almost impossible to stop aggregation there are twenty instances of subdivision, for every instance of aggregation. That aggregation is occasionally possible is due not to Mr. Massey's administration of the Lands Department, but to detVxits in the law for which his predecessors are mainly responsible and which his Government has not had sufficient time to remedy. It is announced that 161,43*1 acres of land, of which 49,737 acres are in the Auckland dkfcrict, are -to be thrown open for settlement in March. This indicates a desire to mset the existing land hunger, but it can only he regarded— Mr. Massey is doubtless aware—a:;i an instalment of a long overdue open- j ing of the locked up land a of the DoGiMoJL* With tho' Lands Depart- ! meat taisr the control of a prac ! tier* farmer who has the interests j of tjbft 5.335.U farmers at heart we j may look forward to an early dis- j appearance of both the leasehold tenure for agricultural land and the j remaining facilities for aggregation, i