LAND SETTLEMENT CONTROL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21329, 2 November 1932, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT CONTROL

Seeing that seven months have passed since the official year ended, the financial position disclosed in departmental reports now being presented to Parliament is somewhat ancient history for subnormal times. There is reason to fear that there has been serious drift in the revenue of some of the lending departments. The report on discharged soldiers* settlement, published to-day, seems to anticipate increased financial difficulties, which for the year ended on March .'<l are reflected in the statement that the amount outstanding on sundry debtors and postponement accounts increased from £447.271 to £66t,651, while cash receipts showed a decline of £158,24(3. Should a continuance of this movement take place on the operations of all lending departments, the financial problems of the current year will lie grave indeed. A cheering contrast to the position of the discharged soldiers' settlement account is provided by that of the Rural Intermediate Credit Board, which, at June 30, had arrears of interest of only £422. This board, with the interests of debenture holders to protect, is bound to follow a prudent, businesslike policy.. While the volume of its operalions does not compare with that of any of the branches of the Lands Department, the contrast, nevertheless, gives some point to the statement of the National Expenditure Commission: ''The present machin-

cry of land administration is exceedingly cumbersome and complicated, and this we believe to be due to the fact that land administration has for many years been regarded as almost entirely political." It emphasises the point that the Lands Department is now largely a financial institution controlling State assets of £47,000,000, of which the invested capital is £.'52,764,000, and suggests that the setting up of one controlling board is imperative. "It would be an advantage to the Government to have a strong board to which could be delegated the duty of carrying out the Government land policy, which should be dictated by well-defined principles and removed entirely from the influence of political expediency." With the sum at stake not far short of the capital invested in railways there is as strong an argument in favour of a non-political land board as for a nonpolitical Railways Board. In the initiation of land settlement and the supervision of settlers, political influence is liable to undermine financial foundations. It is not too much to say that independent control is "imperative."