UNIMPROVED LAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11248, 28 June 1922, Page 3

UNIMPROVED LAND

MINISTER AND CRITICISM HON. AIR GUTHRIE SAYS PORTION * 18 "UNIMPROVABLE." MISLEADING STATEMENTS. Reference was mado by the Hon. D. 11. Guthrie (Alini&ter for Lands) yesterday to the figure* quoted by the “New Zealand Times" from th© "Forests Service Newsletter" as to the area of occupied land in New Zealand that is registered as "unimproved." “Tiie figures in question (stated the Alinister) have a decidedly misleading effect, unless some explanation of the j position is forthcoming. Briefly, the; statement is that or 48,546,757 acres of J occupied land only 15,159,529 acres have i been improved, the balance of 25.3,88.923' acres being clashed as ‘uuimproved.’ The ' figures are not those of the Lands De- \ partment, but are collected from tho j Government Statistician's Department, and are, of course, accepted as official; i but they take no account of the very large area of occupied land in this coun-1 try that is of such a character as to he j ‘unimprovable.' The statement is that. more than half of the occupied laud in the Dominion, approximately 58 per cent., is ‘unimproved'; but so much of that land is made up of rough, moun- j tainous country, and of land that is only fit for pastoral leases, being practically all in tussock and native .grasses, that the total of 'unimproved' land in private occupation is appreciably diminished when the facts are stated. POSITION IN SOUTH ISLAND. "The greater portion of the ISJ million acres of ‘unimproved' land in occupation is found in the South- Island, where, as residents in that part of the country know, there are large areas of land incapable of being brought under the plough, or of being appreciably improved. For instance, in the provinces of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland, which are the great grain-growing districts of , the Dominion, there are no less than; 13,758,136 acres of unimproved country occupied under various tenures; 11,829,835 acres being held direct from the Crown as leaseholds. Of the total acreage of 'unimproved' land occupied in these three provinces 11,368,914 acre 3 arc under tussock and other native grasses. Another 966,942 acres consist of barren and unproductive country that is not capable of improvement. In the MarJborougli and. Nelson provinces there axe another three million acres, or more, of occupied laud also in a state of nature; and here, again, tho position i» that the land is mostly* fit only for pastoral occupation. No- one who knows tho history of settlement in the South Island will seriously argue that the holders of land in that part of the Dominion have been at all backward in improving their holdings. That is, where it is at all possible for them to do so. AND IN NORTH. "It is very noticable, taking the figured as quoted from the 'Forests Service Newsletter,’ that a much greater area of occupied country is described as ‘iinpioved' in the North Island than in the south, the total for the North Island being 11,797,897 acres, as against only 6,361,932 acres in the South Island. The ‘unimproved' occupied land in the five North Island provinces totals only little more than one-third of the occupied unimproved' land in the South Island. Neither the holders nor the government are to blame for this, although there will be those critics of the land system of the Dominion who will say that both the Government and the landholders have failed m their duty; the former in not insisting on improvements being made to the country occupied, and the latter tor their failure to carry out such improvements. But, iu the case of pastoral lessees, in quite a "number of instances they’ are barred from interfering with the land in its natural condition; and, in others, the short tenure of their leases has militated against their attempting anything in that direction. The Land Laws Amendment Act, 1921-22, has, however, improved the position of pastoral lessees by lengthening the term of their leases, as this was considered to be the only practical way of encouraging the lessees to undertake improvements. Analysing the total of ’unimproved' occupied land within tho Dominion, we arrive at the following ; facts:—No less than 14,993,446 acres remain in tussock and native grasses and are incapable of improvement. Another 4,451,648 acres is in standing vinpn bush, ; tnuch of the timber in which is either being milled or kept for milling pur- ; pose 6, and no one will say that it is even necessary or desirable that such timber should be sacrificed, or destroyed, in order to make room for closer settlement, especially in the districts in which the land is located, mostly remoto from population. Another 2.126,866 acres are, as already mentioned, barren and unproductive country, the freehold of which has been given to the occupiers in conjunction with other lands held by them. DOUBLE TAX PENALTY. "Then there are another 3,770.966 acres in fern, scrub, and second growth, of which it may be said that they are in a fair way of being improved; and the Government, which has not been unmindful of its duly in this respect, has, under the Land and Income Tax Amendment Act .of 1920, placed a double tax on such ‘unimproved' lands, which, however, does not come into force until 1923, time being thus given to the occupier or holder to take the necessary steps to effect improvements. There remains 44,002 acres in flax, which it would certainly be undesirable to destroy while the flax industry remains in at all a flourishing condition." "When cognisance is taken of these facts," said the Alinister in conclusion, "there doe« not appear to be much cause for •complaint, either against the Government or the occupiers of land which is classed as ‘unimproved.' At tho same time, it has to be admitted that some of the land in occupation might be turned to better uses than it is being at present put to. But, until the prices of primary products improve and money becomes more plentiful, and labour conditions are easier, it is not likely that any great advance will be made, although on the part of mo3t landholders there is a genuine desire to increase production. Tho forestry official who commented upon the figures admitted that a large proportion of ‘unimproved' land is incapable of being brought to a highly productive state; but in his desire to ‘boost' his particular department, which has certainly displayed very commendable activity in pramoting afforestation, he was neither fair nor just to the officials of the Lands Department, who have for years past turned their attention to the better development. of the land in the interests of production."