SETTLING IDLE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20288, 22 June 1929, Page 16

SETTLING IDLE LAND.

STATE SCHEME URGED.

RELIEF, OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

1 PROBLEM IN DOMINION.

SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT.

After hearing addresses on land settlement and unemployment, a representative meeting of over 100 delegates from public bodies and organisations last even.ing unanimously carried a motion promising all possible support to Parliament in the provision of legislation and finance this year to promote the settlement of undeveloped lands. Tho meeting was convened by tho Now Zealand Land Settlement aud Development League, and was held in the Town Hall conceit chamber. The Mayor of Auckland, Mr. G. Baildon, presided. Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, chairman of the executive, after traversing the leaguo's j past activities, &iid members of Parliament who had attended a recent conference convened by it had expressed their willingness to treat systematic land settlement as a national question, above party. If the coming session produced r.o more than a comprehensive settlement scheme, Parliament's work would be amply justified. The Auckland Areas. "The position in New Zealand to-day is unparalleled,", said Mr. Holdsworth. ••We have idle iknds, idle men and idle money. Surely in this country ,we have brains enough to co-ordinate those three and overcome our present trouble." The •Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, in replying to a deputation from tho league recently, had said his Government had already made a start with settlement and

proposed to pursue vigorously its policy of taking up estates and putting men on to . small holdings. Sir Joseph had also undertaken that the league's proposals would be closely and sympathetically considered by the Government. The chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, concluded Mr. Holdsworth, had said that land settlement was tho only solution of the country's troubles. Mr. N. G. Gribble, secretary of the league, displayed a map prepared by the Lands Department, showing areas of 1000 acres and upward in the North Auckland land district, at present unalienated, amounting to 200,000 acres. There was

also a block of 210,000 acres of Crown , and State forest reserve lands north of ' Wailii, to which Mr. A. M. Samuel, M.P., had drawn public attention, and 400,000 acres, all Crpwn lands, in tho Rotorua and Taupo districts. The North Auckland areas, said Mr. Gribble, included one of 10,000 acres on

the Northern Wairoa River, and another of 11,000 acres in the Bay of Islands. On the latter a small amount of experimental ■wprk had been done. Land adjoining it had cost £6 tc? £lO an acre to make productive, and was carrying stock successfully, although it had not been topdressed for ten years. Troiible Not Diagnosed.

Half the largo area on the Coromandel Peninsula, according to Mr. Samuel, was waiting for the plough. The RotoruaTaupo lands, he was informed on good authority, were capable of producing £4 per acre per annum when in order. In the North Auckland and Auckland districts there were "farms" aggregating 150,000 acres which would-be settlers might take up. Mr. G. Day, president of the Purewa ."Workers' Union, said manual wage-earn-ers had no objection to becoming settlers. He could produce at short notice at least 30 men who would be ready to take up land if they could get it under iworkable conditions. Mr. A. A Ross, Auckland provincial president of the Farmers' Union, said that unemployment was a direct consequence of the cessation of land settlement

some years ago. The trouble should have been diagnosed and treated when men began to leave their farms. Of late, farming methods in New Zealand had greatly improved, and, although it was not generally recognised,. the normal return le£t a margin over wprking expenses. To help the country in 'any degree, .settlement must be effected on a large scale and as economically as possible. The process might involve some loss, but even so it was a better object of expenditure than the present unemployment relief, which was practically all loss. Fses for £25,000.

Mr. T. Bloodworth, speaking on behalf of Labour, said that in a country with land idle and capable of utilisation, unemployment was inexcusable. The present Government had offered each of the four

cities £25,000 as a pound for pound subsidy on relief works. This sum would build or)ly four or five miles of streets,

but it would furnish 11 men with £SOO each to start them upon the land; it would employ 125 men at £4 a. week for a year in preparing land for occupation. Lately he had visited a friend who occupied a farm of about 270 acres which had been brought into full productivity at a cost of £ls an acre. The £25,000 would pay. the cost of creating vsix such farms.

Mr. A. G. Lunn, representing the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, moved the following motion:—"That this meeting of representatives of the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League, local authorities and the commercial and industrial interests of Auckland, recognising the seriousness of the present unemployment position and the vital importance to the whole Dominion of land settlement, pledges itself to assist our legislators in every possible way to put upon the Statute Book this session the necessary legislation and to provide finance to bring into production lands at present undeveloped, and that we put on record our appreciation of the recent promise made in this connection by the Prime Minister to a deputation from the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League." The motion was carried unanimously. - In moving a vote of thanks to the

Land Settlement and Development League for its efforts Mr., W. Wallace, chairman -of the Auckland Hospital Board, said the latter had paid out in unemployment relief fully £IOO,OOO in the past three years. Including private charity, he estimated that the total so spent in Auckland must have been £50,000 a year for tho period. This showed tho real need of a solution of the problem.