CLOSE SETTLEMENT POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15659, 13 July 1914, Page 6

CLOSE SETTLEMENT POLICY.

There is no subject upon which Government and Opposition policies in New Zealand appear to agree so thoroughly as the need for closer settlement. On the platform and in Parliamentary debates both sides pose as the friends of the land seeker. In this there is political wisdom, for without doubt neglect of land settlement is the unforgivable sin in a political party in New Zealand. But a common knowledge of the needs of the country has led the two parties into divergent paths. The Opposition seeks success at the polls by claiming, in spito of the facts, a monopoly of sympathy with the land hungry; the Government is content to put its professions into practice and let the unprejudiced elector judge whether platform froth or business-like administration is the more desirable in the interests of the country. The decision to acquire the Hon. A. J. Balfour's estate near Pahiatua is the latest evidence of the Government's sincerity in the subdivision of large estates. lb is a singular comment on the attitude of the two parties that this estate, treated as an absentee owner would be expected to treat it, has survived 20 years of the Continuous Administration, and is now destined to be cut up into small holdings by a Government whom its prejudiced opponents would have us believe is the friend and protector of the great landowners. Had the Continuous Government been as anxious to cut up large estates as it professed to be, and as the party now in opposition still professes to be,' the Balfour estate would have been settled many years ago to the benefit of the Pahiatua district and of the whole of New Zealand. It has been left to be added to the record of the Reform Government's land'purchases, which already confutes the grotesque Opposition contention that the aim of the present administration is aggregation and not subdivision. In 1910-11, with the Ward Party in power, the Government purchases of land totalled 14,399 acres at a cost of £158,796; in 1911-12 the total was 44,776 acres at a price of £381,483. Mr. Massey came into office in August, 1912, and in the year that closed with March, 1913, the land purchases amounted to 52,098 acres 'at- tk oost of £428,044. In the year

following Mr. Massey had charge of the Land Department and Mr. Allen of, the Treasury for the whole twelve months, and one of the conspicuous results was the purchase of 141,062 acres of improved land, costing only £560,708. The big estates of Hawkc's Bay are continually quoted as evidence of the wickedness of the Masscy Ministry. Again the actions of the Opposition Party belie their professions, for in the whole of Sir Joseph Ward's term as Prime Minister only 45,000 acres were purchased in Hawke's Bay, and Mr. Massey in less than two years has purchased 28,321 acres in the same province. Neither in Hawkc's Bay nor in any other part of New Zealand has the Reform Government any reason to fear a comparison with its predecessors in the purchase of improved estates.