THE LAND LAWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15645, 26 June 1914, Page 6

THE LAND LAWS.

The opinion of the selected Opposition candidate for the Ringitikei ■at that the Land Laws Amendment Act of 1912 has encouraged aggregation will not be shared by those who have a personal knowledge of the operations of that Act. ,It will be remembered that a similar allegation was made last session, and after a searching inquiry by the Lands Committee of the House of Representatives was found to bo without foundation. The specific i allegation was that aggregation had i been rampant in the Mangaweka district, but this was rebutted by | the evidence, and the Lands Committee found that there had been no aggregation except in a few cases which took place in past years under the then«existing land laws, and with the sanction of the Wellington Land Board. The committee further reported that the statement that aggregation was encouraged by the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1912, and to a large extent was due to the provisions of that i Act, was incorrect. The evidence J showed that originally much of the j land had Men cut into sections of j too small an area, and that the; Land Board had acted in tho best interests of settlement in allowing the areas to be increased to a size, which would enable settlers to make : a living. It will be conceded that "aggregation" up to an area which j will allow a farmer to support his 1 family in comfort is no great danger ' to tho state. The allegation that the Reform Government is an enemy of closer settlement is one of those party catch cries that dies hard, but j it certainly has outlived its useful- ! ness as a political criticism. Tho i Herald yields to none in its insist- j nee on the supreme importance of, rapid and close settlement, but while urging that much land is still locked* up, to the impediment of national progress, it gladly recog- : nises Mr. Massey's efforts to make land available to tho settler. The advent of the Reform Government inaugurated a more vigorous policy of settlement, and statistical evidence shows the present Administration to be more actively hostile to land aggregation than were its predecessors.