THE MINISTER FOR LANDS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1928, Page 8

THE MINISTER FOR LANDS

The visit of the Minister for Lands (the Hon. A. D. McLeod) to Taranaki this week serves as a reminder of the heavy load this Minister has had to bear in recent years. Times have been difficult for most men in positions of responsibility during this period, but they have been unusually difficult and hal'd for the Minister charged with the duty of administering the affairs of the Lands Department. The State is a very large landlord, having thousands of farmers on its roll. Things have not been going too well with many of them, owing to the deterioration of much of the land, caused partly by lack of capital and proper working in the critical "breaking-in” years, partly by the lack of experience on the part of many of the ex-soldiers, and consequently it has fallen to the lot of the Minister to devise means of assisting these settlers and at the same time protecting or conserving the interests of the State. This Jias presented no easy task, but it hag been one from which the Hon. McLeod has never shrunk. No one formula oould -be applied to all the cases requiring attention; each had to be investigated and dealt with on its merits. In this connection valuable assistance has been rendered the Minister by the Deteriorated Land Commission and the Land Boards. They have recommended remission of rent and reduction of capital, and the grant of further assistance In working the sections. The cost to t'he country of all this has been very heavy—running into millions—but it has been the only way to keep the men on the land and save tens of thousands of acres from going absolutely out of production. The Minister has been wise enough to recognise this, and courageous enough to give effect to it. He has been blamed for his inactivity in not promoting .uidier settlement, for making available for settlement the gum lands of the north and the pumice lands of the Taupo district, but with things as they were it would have, been foolish in the extreme to have yielded to the pressure. His primary concern was with those men already on the land who were “up against it,” and it can fairly be claimed that he lias discharged his responsibility with benefit both to the meal and the State, and credit to himeelf and those associated with him in carrying out this most onerous and difficult work. New Zealand has been blessed with some great men in charge of the Portfolio of Lands, but none has been confronted with so many problems and difficulties as the Hon. McLeod, and none has emerged from them with greater -credit and distinction. Happily he has broken the back of his unenviable work in reviewing and adjusting the affairs of the State tenants, and the improved markets for our primary products should facilitate the completion of a chapter in the settlement of lands in the .Dominion none can desire to ever have reopened.