The N. Z. Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1905. LAND FOR SETTLEMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 4

The N. Z. Times.

(PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1905. LAND FOR SETTLEMENT

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When the most progressive of Land Ministers purchased the Cheviot estate it was thought, quite honestly, by many of his opponents, and even by some of his friends, that he had embarked on a career of uncertainty and danger. Speedy disaster was openly prophesied. The rules of business management, the history of political failures, the chemistry of agriculture, were each invoked in condemnation of the venturesome IMinister’s “latest fad.” But all those fears and predictions, scientific and otherwise, came to naught. Cheviot has taken its place at the head of the great successes in State-conducted enterprise. Cheviot does not stand alone. What followed Cheviot was the development of the land for settlements policy, which now stands in the public books debited with an expenditure of over three millions of money. To say that the whole of this vast sura has been spent as successfully as the cost price of Cheviot would he an exaggeration. But the great hulk of it has been invested with results nearly as good. Perhaps the most striking of the other successes is the nest of settlements running from North Otago up into South Canterbury. We are reminded of their, existence by the reports of the proceedings of the Land Commission on its way through this very pleasant and prosperous country. Of th<j .Southern settlements it may he said that they represent the force which gave life to a country lying dead under the heel of capital, insufficient and misused. Until they were started, the country stagnated. Rents wore exorbitant and the broad acres were locked up. But Mow how different the state of things. The land has been unlocked ; the soil has passed into the profitable occupation of the small farmer; and, with the help of good seasons and good prices, there is a “boom” over the country. Well-tilled fields have taken the place of the old grassy wastes; comfort and industry fill the land; and the farming folk, moreover, are more contented than farming folk have ever been in the history of this colony or any other. The towns are prosperous by sympathy. "An Oamaru witness before the Land Commission testified to this fact, when he stated that that town had never before been so prosperous as now within his experience, which extended to thirty years. Similarly, the northera settlements across the Waitaki have played their part. What has happened at Windsor, Ardgowan, Ngapara, Duntroon, Tokarahi, and other places has its counterpart in the country stretching from the southern border of the Waikakahi estate to Temuka and Geraldine. Here, too, the farmer has succeeded the shepherd, and has become at the same time a better shepherd, because* he has devoted his land to the keeping of sheep on scientific principles. It is no wonder that the toilers in the towns watch keenly the experiment which is having so splendid an issue. They cry that there is not enough land for all the population, and demand subdivision and yet more subdivision, and revaluation, in addition. It is not to be wondered at that their talk has had the effect of frightening the men whose industry is making the country blossom like the rose.

It ' is, of course, true that there is not land enough to go round, It is true also that when the limit of subdivision is reached—and that will not be until the population sees a vast increase upon its present numbers—there will still be not enough for the people. But the policy of subdivision can be pushed too far. It seems clear that at present it is going on fairly well for the needs of the population. On the .other hand, there is not so much danger of aggregation as there was. The farmer, with his quiver full, is the best preventive of aggregation- What deserves more than passing notice is that the city agitator has alarmed the farming folk in these settlements until they believe—wrongly, it is true—that the townsman would deprive them of their leases, even though their term is of 999 years. Under the circumstances, it is ‘ almost amazing to find these men firmly, for the most part, adhering to the lease-in-perpetuity that has secured them their humble independence. They at all events have a tenderness for the bridge that has carried them over the dark river. . Revaluation they, of course, can never be expected to accept. But -it is a misfortune that these settlers, who are truly the backbone of the colony, should have been frightened; arid it would be for the benefit of everybody if the agitator of the cities suspended his aggressiveness for a time. The inquiries of the Band Commission are proving conclusively enough that the settler in the country is, in the great majority of instances, desirous of the freehold, and that he fails to understand why city theorists should know what is good for him better than he does himself.