A NEW LAND POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23134, 5 September 1938, Page 8

A NEW LAND POLICY

A new land policy, to be revealed before the election, is promised on behalf of the Government by the j Minister of Finance. It is an un- | deserved compliment to speak of a I new policy. In its term of office, ; now extending almost to three years, the Government has produced not even the elements of a land policy; so there is no old one to be replaced by a new. The Minister of Lands has spoken vaguely once or twice on lines that suggest he was thinking of socialised or collective farming, but while he and some of his colleagues may have the will to institute such a policy, there is no evidence of their having attempted to plan it. Land settlement has been on the shelf for the past three years. The Minister of Finance has now spoken in terms acknowledging the need for more settlement. This acknowledgment may be a sign of grace, but if the details of a policy are to be worked out between now and the election, with much other work pressing for attention, it can only be superficially done. The people, moreover, will have little time to consider and place a value on what is offered. The promise now made is, in fact, a sorry commentary on the course that has been followed in the immediate past. Millions have been, and still are being, poured into new roads and railways, but no thought has been given to developing the country which should provide the freight to be carried over them. The country i 3 being committed to more millions of annual expenditure, and the justification claimed for it is that production will increase in the future as it did in the past; but nothing has been done to broaden the base of production by bringing more land into use. A real land policy is one of the most urgent needs of the moment.