UNPRODUCTIVE LANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17482, 28 May 1920, Page 4

UNPRODUCTIVE LANDS.

SETTLEMENT ADVOCATED. j : 'THE UREWERA- COUNTRY. FARMERS' UNION 'VIEWS. ,'- The : desirability of the Government taking; steps rto -bringinto proper production I the unused and partially unusued lands of the Dominion was yesterday affirmed by the Provincial Conference of the Farmers' Union. '* '•'""':• • Mr. P. Keegan, who moved the adoption of the remit, on behalf of , the executive, ' stated that one reason for land lying idle ■was want of capital by the farmer. It should be the business of the Government to see' that the fanners got capital . for working their land at a fair rate of interest. Large areas of land were held 'by the Government in'many localities. In the Whakatane County there was a great < stretch of good land in the shape of the Urewera Country. A great portion had been acquired by the Government, but no attempt had yet been made ,to open it up for settlement. There was a good • metalled road giving access to it, and a freezing works within 14 miles of the block. He urged that the union use every effort to induce the Government to open all unused land for settlement. The policy of the Government in acquiring improved estates for settlement by soldiers was condemned .by, Mr. S. C. Jounneaux. ' A very small quantity of improvrd land, he said, would have been sufficient to provide for disabled soldiers, and the fit men should have been settled on unimproved country. This would have stimulated production in the right way by making productive land that was lying idle. The remit was adopted.