THE SETTLEMENT POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17708, 17 February 1921, Page 6

THE SETTLEMENT POLICY.

The latest defence of the settlement policy offered by the Minister for Lands is not reassuring. When Mr. Guthrie says that "in the early day& it was necessary to buy improved land," he raises the hope that other methods may now be in view, .but he fails to give any assurance of change, and all the evidence is that repatriation still involves the process of purchasing improved farms at inflated values. If the saner policy of putting soldiers on Crown land were contemplated, the Government would not now be raising a loan of £6,000,000 for settlement alone. The Minister admits that mistakes have been made, that " land has 1 been purchased which would not be purchased to-day." If he is forced to make that admission to-day, what will be his verdict when prices have reached their economic level and soldiers are expected during a period of depression to make a living off farms bought during a boom? It is not a question of occasional errors of judgment; the whole Ministerial policy has been a mistake. It is not suggested that the State has bought carelessly; probably it has secured land below, rather than above, market prices. But the bottom prices of a highlyspeculative period may prove unwarranted when normal conditions return. The State is chiefly to blame for creating the boom in land values It forced the market against itself, and compelled soldiers to compete against each other for the limited amount of improved land on the market. Mr. Guthrie says the Government kept thousands of acres of undeveloped land for soldiers, but they refused to take it up. The Minister is doubtless referring to land which is either inaccessible or barren, or both. He could not reasonably expect soldiers to select Crown, land lacking road and railway communication, but if, instead of spending millions in purchasing improved land, he had spent a fraction of the money developing Crown land and bringing it into touch with markets, he would have found no reason to complain that soldiers were indifferent to it. That is the only reasonable policy to pursue in an undeveloped country like New Zealand, and if the Government will even now make public works serve land settlement it will find almost immediate relief for its finances.