GREAT LAND SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 7

GREAT LAND SCHEME

AUSTRALIAN! PROPOSAL.

SETTLERS FROM AMERICA.

EXPENDITURE OF £2,000,000.

One of the most important moves yet taken in regard to land settlement in, this State is under consideration, says a Sydney paper. The Government is asked* to agree to an area of half a million acres being " colonised " by an American development company. Over £2,000,000 of American money will be put into, the scheme, and' American and Canadian farmers will be placed on the land..

Negotiations have been in progress for some time, but specific details have necessarily had to be withheld pending the finalisation of certain plana. As the principle of colonisation on a large scale by private companies is comparatively untried in New South Wales, the Government is going closely into its possibilities. The scheme was put forward by a' Vic-, torian, Mr. R. B. Alty, who has sp«nt several' years in America ( and has seen colonisation schemes earned out by investors on a large scale. The schemes include the carrying out of irrigation works, road-building, railway construction, provision of canning factories, etc.. and the settling of farmers on subdivided land.

Mr. Alty recently visited the Murrumbidgee irrigation areas, and came to the conclusion that the district offered a very suitable field for a big colonisation , a scheme. The land he had particularly ia view was alongside the new GriffithHillston line, known as the Eillston lands.

However, Mr. Alty was not alone in his opinion of the Hillston lands. The Cabinet sub-committee on land settlement had already marked out the area for subdivision by the Government. Beport Upon the Area. Following is the report presented to Cabinet regarding the area: —" There is a fine area of country served by th,e railway which is iust being completed from Griffith to Hillston. but if we were to attempt to convert all this area into an irrigation settlement we doubt whether we should succeed. We, therefore, suggest extending the water supply from the Murrumbidgee canal through, pipes or open channels for the .purpose of providing water for stock and domestic purposes for settlers engaged in dry-farming. '. When the railway was first decided upon, *iome years ago, the land on 15 - miles each side of the route was " proclaimed " or reserved for closer settlement. Mr. Alty\fou:;d that most of the land alongside the line was held by big owners. He at once set out to obtain options on between 400,000 and 500,000 acres, but found he had been forestalled in his settlement scheme by the Government. The owners were in a position to sell him about 200,000 acres away from the line, but the 200,000 within the , 15-mile radius was "proclaimed," Mr. Alty had no use for the outlying land without the railway frontages, ana wrote to the Government asking for the embargo to be lifted. He explained that his object was to open up the land and settle a large number of Americans, Canadian, or local men on the blocks. American capital would be employed in the i scheme. , ! The Enhanced Valua., | Mr. Wearne, Minister for Lands, had no objection to anybody spending a few millions in opening up the land, but iJore agreeing to lift the proclamations he desired to take a number of precautions to protect the prospective Bettlers. Mr. Wearne thought the Government should have information as to what terms | Mr.- Alty proposed to settlers, and at what price the land was to be sold. Mr. Alty'a reply to this was that the settlers would be cash buyers. Details as to pries could not be arrived at without full investigation. As to the proposed extension of pipes by the Migration Commission,*" Mr. Alty- pointed" out that this costly work would be undertaken organisation. Another difficulty arose in regard to the enhanced value of the land in consequence of the construction of the railway and the nearby irrigation 'banal. Questioned in regard to a statement that the Government was holding the 4 scheme up, Mr. Wearne said .that the question of the enhanced value of the. i land called for the most serious consideration on the part of the Government. - "The delay is not because the Government has any'objection to American or Canadian farmers settling on our land," he said, "but whether an American syndicate is to receive the added value on the particular land in question as a result of works carried out by the State." Mr. Wearne added that the matter wii* still before, the Cabinet.