LAND AGGREGATION.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14875, 25 September 1918, Page 2

LAND AGGREGATION.

IN THE NORTH ISLAND.

A scries of special articles ■ dealing with land aggregation has Tjeeii appearing in the "Manawatu Daily Times", during the last week or so, "and some rather startling figures have been published, showing the results of the aggregation evil. It is not a thing of yestei*day. It can be traced almost from the time of the, cutting up of various blocks for -settlement. If, indoed, the history of many blocks in the Manawatu district were closely gone into, it would show, says -our contemporary, that, within a comparatively short period of their being thrown open for selection, the buying-up process set in. Within the lasc few years, however, the process has been accelerated. The conditions arising out of the war have undoubtedly been a factor in this direction, but on the other hand, it should be very evident that the conditions, financial and otherwise, which the war is creating form the strongest season why the process should be stopped. Yet, so far-as the "Times" is aware, thera has been only one case of alleged aggregation in the neighbourhood where the Land Purchase Co'mznissioners .have" investigated in accordance with tho provisions of the Act of 1913, and the result of this is not yet known. Faster than the settlers are being put upon tht land, others are leaving it and drifting into the towns. This deplorable fact-is plainly evident from the census returns of. 1906. and: 1916* , which give the popujatio^ of •the counties bf^Rangitikey Kiwitea, Oroua, Kairanga^?Pohangmga, and Manawatu for the respective periods as. 25,7,88 : and. 25,068; an actual decrease 0f \ 720, or %\ per cent., the boroughs of Marton, Eeilaing, and Palmersfon show an increase of 3439 or 23.7 per cent. For'Arealthy ,meti; With capital to be holding large areas; far up #n; the Ring jQvifnsry{ wHere one's products, ijathe absence'of :go<j>dfio}ids arid communication, Mye to hd- transported on; the^hoof, may. :eve^i-- be. all ; t6 theTgood,--but" the aggrogatioa de^ilt %rth by the;" Times'• -is in.vthe;)settled f>arts of the districts, the rich Jiairan'ga- lands, the fertile JPohangina Valley, the Orbua and Kiwitea districts, where settlement has- already! taken <plage, often brought about by community 'agencies, and has then gone back into monopolistic conditions, and now carries a reduced population; Kairanga lands, for instance, cjiri 'almost all through support a family ;t<Levery 50 acres. The"; Times" has seen the re-

I turns of, one ■-■'.■•farm- of not quite that nrefi, and last year it returned just over £700. On pre-war values it-could always return from £450 to £500. A3 methods of production improve and facilities increase, these returns will no doubt be 'bettered. Thercs is here at any rate a comfortable livelihood for a i'anuly to live beyond want, even if not satiated by riches. In tk'j' district between Ashluirst and 1 ohangina, aggregation has been proceeding apace. The same cry is heard of. lessened business by the country stoves, decreasing "school attendances, and smaller factory returns. . In this case .t Uoes not take the form of the •mopping up by one 01 two large operators, biro the men who hold" -the'farms have been buying up adjoining holders, and over and over again one finds cases ■where-the owner runs his own original farm and in the, meantime the money he has made from it has enabled 'him to 'run another one.or two "places" with sheep, to which he pays a weekly visit jJus is .aggregation within the meaning of the Act winch Rays:—-Land shall toe deemea t-o be acquired 'by way of aggregatioh within the meaning of this section, when any person becomes ti.e 1 owner thereof who is already the owner j. of any other land." Between Ashhurst jand Awahou, tiie following authentic cases are quoted by the "Tinier" :— A . lives on 16 acres at Ashhurst, and runs two other farms with sheep (no manager). y nfi'.T'"l^' 08 iou a, dail T fa™, rans one othei iVith sheep (no manager) ' O- has an 80-aero dairy-farm and has bought another 90 acres over the rZ e{' vrhore he runs shoep (m> nianaj l-D» has mopped up several farms 'and has emptied four homesteads at L '%'' original GOO acres (sheep) I bought out "X" witli 30b acres. P' 1 / '«iv a i o<6f Owner eist--whero, bought •,+ ? J 20? ? crep ' and caus«l an ; empty homestead. i "G"" bought out "Z" and emptied an- ( other homestoftd.- ---! '"I," already an owner of a fnirlv ■ large farm and part owmu- of another,! "J,)! Hli-ondv holding 300 to 400 a"ros buys »i new olace, goes to reside- there'"' and lea\cs tno old homestead empty ' And so the tale runs on (comments the VXfingamu "Herild"). From an enimenco adjoining Awahou church, within a radius of about three miles' thr-rn sire no fewer thnn l:> empty houiesteftds. it has not liappcned ail* recently, but within a comparatively- short period. - Tiio proportio/i of o~viiers to orimnai holdings is about one to three, which is another way of saying that tho i land -s c-aiTyintr n nl.\ ono-thircl of the! poople,it v/as inlcncied to carry'when j originally cut-up. Each of those cases' designated alphabetically is authentic,! ' and tin- facts, with names ami- otlier pavtioulars. arc in possession ol: the "Timc>. M ' '