UNIMPROVED LAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18592, 28 June 1922, Page 8

UNIMPROVED LAND

MISLEADING FIGURES.

FORESTRY DEPARTMENT’S ACTIVITIES. STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF LANDS. (From Ouk Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 27. A statement published recently in the Forest Sendee Newsletter commented upon the area of occupied land in New Zealand that is registered as “unimproved.” The figures quoted have a • decidedly misleading effect, unless some explanation is forthcoming of the position, said the Minister of Lands (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie) to-day. Briefly, the statement is that of 48,546,757 acres of occupied land only 18,159,829 acres have been improved, the balance of 25,386,928 acres being classed as “unimproved.” The figures are not those of the Lauds Department, but are collected from the Government Statistician’s department, and are, of course, accepted as official, but they take no account of the very large area of occupied land in this country that is of such a character as to be “unimprovable.” The statement is that more than half of the occupied land in the dominion, approximately 58 per cent., is “unimproved,” but so much of that land is made up of rough, mountainous 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 tho facts are stated. Tho greater portion of the 18£ million acres of 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 hold direct from the Crown as leaseholds. Of the total acreage of “unimproved” land occupied in these three provinces. 11,365,914 acres are under tussock and other native grasses. Another 966,942 acres consist of barren and unproductive country, that is not capable of improvement. In the Marlborough and Nelson provinces again there are another three million acres or more 'of occupied land also in a state of nature, and here again tho position is that the land is mostly only fit for pastoral occupation. No one who knows the 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. It is very noticeable. taking the figures as quoted from the Forests Service Newsletter, that a much greater area of occupied country is described as “improved” 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 tho 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 in their duty, the farmer in not insisting in improvements being made to the country occupied, and the latter for their failure to carry out such improvements. But in 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 ha s 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 tho total of “unimproved” occupied land within the 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 virgin bush, much of the timber in which is either being milled or kept for millinn- purposes, 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 as the districts in which the land is located is mostly remote from population. Another 2,126.866 acres are, as already mentioned, barren and unproductive country, tho freehold of which has been given to the occupiers in conjunction with other lands held by them. Then there are another 3,770,966 acres in fern, scrub, and second growth, of which it may be said that ijhey are in a fair way of being improved, 'and the Government, which has not been unmindful of its duty in this respect-, has, under the Land and Income Tax Amendment Act of 1920 placed a double tax < n 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 ail a flourishing condition. When cognisance is taken of these facts there does not appear to be much cause for complaint, either against the Government or the occupiers of the land, which is classed as “unimproved.” At the same time, it has to be admitted that some of tho land in occupation might be turned to better uses than it is being at present put to, but until the prices of cur primary products improve, and money becomes more plentiful, and labour .conditions are easier, it is not likely that any groat advance will be made, although on the part of most landholders there is a genuine desire to increase production. Tbcj 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 promoting 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.