CLOSER SETTLEMENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3802, 31 August 1936, Page 4

CLOSER SETTLEMENT

BEST CURE FOR NOXIOUS WEEDS. The point that closer settlement was the best cure for the problem of noxious weeds was advanced by Mr W. J. Broadfoot, M.P. for Waitomo, when speaking in the House of Representatives. The Waikato Natives were short of land, he said, and arguments were still in progress about those which had been confiscated. In other areas more sparsely populated there were large areas of land available, and it seemed that the transfer of population had to be considered. There had been an experiment in that direction between Waikato and Tikitiki, Had it been a success?

Another problem was that of cutover lands—native lands that had been timbered. The timber had been sold on a royalty basis and the land abandoned. One particular area at Mangapehi, which area had been worked by Messrs Ellis and Burnand, had probably earned up to £8 or £l2 an acre in royalties, and the timber having been removed, was going back. The land was becoming a nursery for weeds, and the seed was being distributed over many areas. If the land was unsuitable for farming it could have been used for afforestation, and had the long view been taken the millers would have had their own timber practically ready to cut. The previous Native Minister had spent about £lOOO on farming experiments on that type of land, and those experiments turned out well.