KING COUNTRY LANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1925, Page 4

KING COUNTRY LANDS.

ADMINISTRATION NEEDS. DESIRE FOR A NEW DISTRICT. SAVING BACKWARD FARMS, » Representatiows are being made to the Minister for Lands, the Hon. A. D. McLeod, by the Taumarunui Chamber of Commerce, urging that a new lands district should be constituted in the King Country, which is at present divided between the Auckland, Wellington and Taranaki districts. A letter the chamber has addressed to the Minister states: — The chamber has considered very carefully the report of the commission set up to consider the land deterioration in the King Country. It has formed very definite conclusions on the matter and has decided to place these conclusions before you. The present position in the King Country from a farming point of view is undoubtedly to a large extent the result of its past history. After the Maori War all the land in Taranaki west of the confiscatiojgjline was taken and most of this land was of first-class quality. The land in the King Country remained the property of the natives, and from time to time the Crown has purchased large blocks of it. Settlers accordingly have settled either on Crown or oh native land under leasehold or freehold tenure. To some extent mistakes have been made by past Governments which have been forced by public opinion to open up land for settlement. A very considerable portion of this settlement took place in the King Country. Most of the sections were partieularlv small, and in many cases the areas were absurd. The unimproved value of the land was in many cases over-estimated,'and in many cases the rentals were correspondingly too great. Many of the settlers have found it impossible to pay the very heavy annual payments in addition to interest on the cost of their improvements. Amelioration of this position is possible only over a period of time, and can only be effected by a much closer acquaintance with the problems of the district on the part of the departmental administration. TRIPLE DIVISION OF AUTHORITY. A portion of approximately one-third of the area affected is in the Wellington district. A further portion is situated in the Taranaki land district. The remaining portion is administered from the distant office in Auckland. In other words, the King Country is the most distant portion of the three land districts. The commissioners in general have done their best for the districts under their control, but only at distant intervals have they been able to visit them and inspect this country for themselves. It has been a very great hardship to settlers that to lay their positions before their commissioners or Land Boards they have had to make most expensive journeys to their centres. The only representatives of the land boards have been rangers, one living at Ohakune, another at Taumarunui and another at Te Kuiti. They have done excellent work, but their authority has been most limited and, of course, there has been no co-ordination among them. At the present time the King Country, from a farming point of view, has rather a bad name. To a small extent this is deserved, and, of course, considerable publicity lias been given to the deteriorating portions. Undoubtedly a certain amount of land has been opened for selection that has been quite unsuitable for farming, and at the present time some bad farms are idle and quite a number of good ones. The King Country, however, includes a large area of splendid grazing country. The majority of the farms that are at present empty could undoubtedly be farmed with profit. Unfortunately there are mortgages on them, generally speaking, to the State Advances Department and, although theoretically there may be absolute co-ordination between the State Advances and the Crown Lands Department, in our opinion the two departments working so far away from the farms in question are incapable of dealing with the problems. In many cases a reduction in the Crown interest

and in the State Advances mortgage would mean a thoroughly attractive proposition. If there were any authority here thoroughly acquainted with the sections in question we do not doubt that these farms would soon have satisfactory tenants. FORMING A NEW DISTRICT. The chamber has considered this matter and discussed the same for some considerable time. It has been forced to the conclusion that the only solution to the difficulty Is the construction of a separate land district dealing with the King Country and its problems alone. The commissioner or officer in charge will, of necessity, be a man of experience and more than an official, and he will have the support of capable farmers in the district. His personal knowledge should prevent money being wasted on bad tenants or bad farms. He will be in a position over a period of years to assist in the rectification of the" mistakes of the past administration in the subdivision of blocks into unsuitable areas. A commissioner on the spot would naturally be in close touch with the agricultural and grazing problems. Up to the present the Crown tenants have had little if any advice and supervision in this district from their landlords. There mav be objections to the formation of a new land district, but these can only be minor administrative difficulties. There is, of course, no necessity for the land district to be a land registration district or a survey district so far as we can sec. It is really a matter of the appointment of a central office, probably in Taumarunui or Te Kuiti and the transfer of the files dealing with the area in question. The chamber suggests that such a step, together with reasonable financial assistance. would very rapidly place a different aspect on the partial deterioration of this area, and wc are satisfied that you have our interests and the interests of the Dominion so closely at hen’t that you will readily overcome any difficulties and arrive at a broad solution of the problem.