OPENING THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15932, 1 June 1915, Page 6

OPENING THE LAND.

ilncreased production through the improvement of communication and the opening of land for settlement is the keynote of ho important Ministerial speeches reported in to-day's j Herald. The Prime Minister, at the opening of the new Mangere | bridge, was able to show that the Public Works Department is now employing 6271 men, or 2300 more than at this time last year. This is | a great step in a year of enormous war expenditure, but it has been taken in pursuance of the policy of fostering national agriculture, of which Mr. Massey has always been a champion, and which has made his Government popular in every country constituency in the North Island. Throughout the war there has been no check in the Government's road and railway work, and Mr. Massey was able to announce yesterday that the temporary limitation of advances to county councils to £2000 is no longer necessary. The increase of these advances to £5000

should enable the badly-roaded i counties of the North to employ whatever surplus labour is available. This will substantially supplement the Government roading expenditure, which must now be well in I advance of the £12,800 per week I maintained throughout last year. In the North of Auckland Mr. Herdman | has been much impressed with the ■ settlement possibilities of a rich dis- , trict, which is only now coming into I its own after two decades of neglect, j The scheme to turn the Awanui-! Kaitaia swamp into another Hauraki . Plains, advocated by Mr. Herdman, ; is in keeping with the Government's ; constant effort to provide land on j freehold tenure for every available '■ farmer. Its adoption would add 1 materially to the productive capacity l of the North. The Bay of Islands! electors are assured of the sympathy | of the Minister for Lands in such an j undertaking. Having now converted i tho Minister for Justice they can I look forward confidently to the early I fruition of the scheme.