LAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19511, 15 December 1926, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT.

Sir, — Why cannot our poor lands 1)9 developed in much the same way as the early settlements were started in the years 1845 and onward. The early settlers of'Albertland had no ideas about whether farming paid. They looked to building homes and settling on places that would give them peace and quiet away frcm slavery and taxes and landlordism. This they all got or nearly all who stuck to the bush life, and their children hava turned out a great credit to this lovely country. I have beqn through their life and know all about its ups and downs and, as a son of one of them, know exactly what I worked for "and obtained from the life. That was a real good homo anil real happiness. The one idea was just to have a home cf my own making and all my boy friends in our district had the same thoughts and . a 11,., or nearly ail, attained this Our poor lands can still he settled if they are offered to men for nothing. If these men do well, let them at a future time, pay a very little, for the poor land, more for second-class and lis a price in the future for ail the best class. Give them what they wish to take up, to, say, 300 acres of ail classes of land. Then help them with means to settle, say, with twice as much capital as they put up themselves, but this capital should only be given to be spent on the advice of good men who have worked similar lands. These men should be appointed bv the district. Lands thus taken up, would, I think, be a success, but no schema will be a success if the idea is to make it pay wages. This five pounds per week business is fast coming to an end. Our baiter* fat and beef cannot pay such wages and I think making a home will once more appeal to us. ~ Geobge L. Thomson.