NORTHERN LANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19264, 1 March 1926, Page 7

NORTHERN LANDS.

Sir,—Recently the Minister of Lands made a tour of the North, to judge for himself the quality of gum land and the conditions relating to the, settlement of any land the Government owned. I just want to dravr your attention to the remit of the trip. The Minister was frequently interviewed by deputations who requested that several blocks of Government land should be opened and was shown different, sections of exactly similar land "where men had broken in gum country and made payable farms out of what was a liowhng desort, The only opinion that could be drawn from him was that he would not - accept any statements made by the men who had done,jit or anybody else. _ He said until his c.wn officials had experimented and found out for themselves what the cost would be lie would not open a-single section. At the same time he said he had 10,000 inen wanting land, and as it will take several years for the Government cxpewmentqvh |to form any conclusion I jbresume they will have to Exercise a little potience. There are threo or four blocks sot apart to bo opened under tho Homestead Acfc and there has not been the slightest movement made by tho Government to open them and unless some action is taken by tho public tho 10,000 men that the Minister is acquainted with will have to wait, This is a matter that not only concerns the city of Auckland but is a" matter of vital importance to . tho whole Dominion. Several remarks the Minister made chow that ho is quite unfitted for-the position he holds. As far as gum land in concerned wo have had several really good men who have occupied tho position of Crown Lands Commissioner for tho Auckland Provinco, and I am quite sure that if one of those men had become Minister of Lands tho population of the North would be mcro than double and land thafc ,, is only a wilderness now would have been providing shin-loads of meat and butter for, the Homo market. Stanley H. Cark.