LAND DEVELOPMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17916, 21 October 1932, Page 7

LAND DEVELOPMENT

STEADY PROGRESS MADE DEPARTMENT’S REPORT DIFFICULTIES OF SETTLERS (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Steady progress with its programme of land development .was made by the Lands Department during the last financial year. The annual report submitted to Parliament to-day indicates that the expenditure (to date oar development works associated with several areas of unoccupied Crown lands on band is close on £400,0C0. Loans to Crown tenants for ,tlie development of their sections up to March 31 numbered 324, representing actual advances of £67,227. 'ihuso were for bush-felling, ploughing, grassing, fencing, drainage, the provision of water supplies, the erection and repair of buildings, and the purchases of manure and grass seed. The report says that the system of granting development loans to settlers holding or taking up undeveloped land is'producing good results in the selection of numerous areas of more or less inferior country by a good practical type of fanner. Select ions of -Crown and settlement lands on all tenures during the year totalled 406.408 acres. The number of selections was .1448. The number of permanent selections of rural lands was 456, involving an acreage of 142.666, while there were 2.16 entirely new rural areas selected, covering 45,809 acres.

The demand for land has, on the whole, been well (maintained, particularly for medium-sized areas of unimproved and partially-improved land. Tenants at March 31 numbered 37,413, occupying a total area of over 19.000,000 acres. Pastoral runs account for approximately 9.000,000 acres, and 1.879.000 acres are of purchased estates held under lease HUGE RENT ARREARS

Receipts from all sources showed a- decrease of £229,211. Rents, the payment of which remained postponed at March 31, amounted to £182,045, while remissions totalled £43,500. Arrears of rent at March 51 totalled £807,311. For tho prompt payment of rent, 15,144 Crown tenants were granted rebates amounting to £34,3C0. The report maintains that concessions must -continue to be granted to Crown settlers until the general price level 'improves. Under existing conditions, no action is being taken by the department to deprive farmers of their holdings merely on account of (non-pay-ment of rent. Where the situation is beyond a settler’s control it is recognised that it would be unjust to displace him, and it is considered most undesirable to interfere with production unless tho settler’s methods of farm management are radically wrong. Dealing with the proposal that there should be a. general writing down of capital, the report states (that there is ample authority for a postponement and remission of rents, and for a revaluation of Crown leaseholds. The department considers these provisions to be sufficient to meet reasonable requirements, and it does not appear that any general revaluation is necessary or desirable. The revaluation of Crown leaseholds should be kept under close control, for while revaluation is useful up to a certain point, it is not, and never has been, an -obvious solution of all farming problems. A balance' must, in tho best interests of all, be belli fairly -between the Crown and its tenants, and the position should not bo approached solely from one point of view.