LAND SETTLEMENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6974, 4 October 1948, Page 5

LAND SETTLEMENT

WIRE AND PIPING NEEDED FOR DEVELOPMENT WORK There were 1400 tons of wire and I, feet of piping needed for outstanding land development work for ex-servicemen settlement, said Mr J. J. Granville, chairman of the farms advisory committee of the Rehabilitation Board, speaking at the quarterly meeting of the Rehabilitation Council.

New Zealand was now getting only one-fifth of the quantity of wire that had been imported in pre-war years, althoup-h every attempt had been made to obtain fencing wire from other countries.

Mr Granville said he agreed that deferred maintenance for farms already established should receive due consideration, as such maintenance had been deferred for eight or nine years. However, he felt some priority should be given to land settlement. Housing in isolated areas and wire for fencing were two big problems on the land settlement side of rehabilitation. i

The chairman, Hon. C. F. Skinner, said it would be unethical for land settlement requirements of wire to be satisfied at the expense of other important demands. He knew that hundreds of men could be settled on large blocks of land if thousands of tons of wire and millions of feet of piping were available. Everything nossible was being done to obtain increased supplies. Mr S. W*. Gaspar said considerable progress had been made with the land settlement side of rehabilitation. Miuch criticism had been levelled at the Board regarding the slowness of land development schemes, but he did not consider this warranted apology. After the first world war there had been the same position. Until the materials and equipment were available the desired headway could not be made. Mr Granville commented that the half-way mark in land settlement had been passed.