LAND DEVELOPMENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7138, 28 November 1949, Page 4

LAND DEVELOPMENT

LARGE area involved STATEMENT BY MINISTER “Hamilton plays a most important part in the administration of the land development programme which is being implemented by .the Government,” said the Minister of Lands and Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, on his arrival in Hamilton on Wednesday. “Three of our land development districts—Auckland, Te Kuiti and Rotorua—converge on the Waikato area. This side of the activity of the Lands and Survey Department has been expanded enormously during the last five years to meet the requirements, firstly of servicemen settlement and secondly, of furthering the Government’s land development policy. “At the moment 800,000 ■ acres are in the course of development throughout New Zealand for settlements, and of this area some 47,000 acres of virgin and reverted country will be brought into productioh this season,” he added. “The majority of this land will be in the Waikato-King Country- Bay of Plenty districts.” Mr Skinner said that to date approximately 2000 servicemen had been settled in the Hamilton rehabilitation district, which embraced the three areas mentioned. Peat Development “We know that the development of peat lands has advanced well beyond the experimental stages and the Government is prepared to negotiate to purchase any area jjf peat land that can be brought into production,” he added. “There are some 60,000 acres pf such lands within a 20-mile radius of, the city of Hamilton.”