LAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19459, 15 October 1926, Page 8

LAND SETTLEMENT.

Sir, —Every thinking man and woman must agree with your leading article in Thursday's issue, and everything thereanent. The present Administration appears to hold a lease in perpetuity of the statement that "there are no lands available for settlement in New Zealand." It is strange that this harmful untruth should remain officially uncontradicted. The writer was in the winterless north of this province about a year ago, and noted hundreds of thousands of acres of accessible land, some good, some very good and some indifferent, some poor • practicaiiy all well watered. At the extreme north there is a large area somewhere in the region of 100,000 acres, held apparently in mortmain by two or three owners. This land is mostly good, some very good, in addition to the remarkable advantages of a sub-tropical climate, warmth and moisture. Divide 4 into small areas, it would, with industry and intelligent management, carry a large and thriving population, and thereby enable this city and its suburban environment to sustain the burden of the interest and sinking funds upon the large sums of money borrowed. In the above-mentioned area alone there is scope for land settlement upon an almost immediately profitable basis. The cry of "no land available for land settlement" coming from an official source, is accepted by the majority in, and by all out of, New Zealand. This is estirely subversive of land settlement, which is vitally essential to the progress of the Dominion. C. E. Major. t