CROWN LAND FARMERS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3809, 16 September 1936, Page 5

CROWN LAND FARMERS

MOST SATISFACTORY YEAR SINCE SLUMP.

“Taken on the whole, the past year has been the most satisfactory one for Crown tenants generally since the beginning of the slump period,” states the annual report on the settlement of Crown lands presented to the House of Representatives last Friday by the Minister of Lands, Hon. F. Langstone. “The dairy-farmers experienced a fair year,” the report continues. “The average price for butterfat, however, was still below the level required to enable numbers of those engaged in this branch of farming to meet their obligations in full. The improvement in the price of ■wool, together with the continued remunerative returns from fat lambs, resulted in those tenants engaged in sheep-farming having a good year.” Referring .to the reinstatement of the revaluation provisions of the Land Act, the report says that a considerable number of application for revaluations was received, and a careful review was being made of the position of those Crown settlors who had applied for relief. During the year there had beer an indication of a renewal of confidence in the future of farming, and there had been a fair demand for properties suitable for either dairy or sheep-farming. Selections of Crown arid settlement lands on all tenures during the year totalled 210,026 acres. At March 31, 1936, the tenants on the books of the Department of Lands and Survey, excluding those established under the small-farms scheme, numbered 37,328 and they occupied a total area of approximately 18,850,000 acres. The operations of the Lands Development Board so far as unoccupied Crown land was concerned had been confined mainly to a. continuation of work on the GaJatea Estate, and on the Kakariki Estate, the net expenditure on development work having been £8524 at Galatea and £3718 on Kaka.riki. The board had not given consideration to undertaking any work on new blocks of unoccupied Crown land, but extensive rehabilitation operations were controlled by the Small Farms Board.