The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1930. LANDS FOR SETTLEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1930, Page 10

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1930. LANDS FOR SETTLEMENT.

. When primary produce values are high there is generally an urge towards obeying the- injunction "back to the land,” but a drop in prices cheeks the movement. .Always, however,'is the cry for more production, and in a primary pro- . dueing country, whether returns are high or low, it is obviously necessary to .obtain the utmost the land of the country will pro- .. duce. New Zealand has now • been. sufficiently long settled to ■ leave little of the first-class producing areas available for enterprise,. so that, to increase the output there must not only be intensive farming, which means. the sub-division of large estates,-but every means must be taken to bring science and industry to bear upon raising the inferior land to the requisite condition for further increasing the wealth of the Dominion and its people. More especially is this necessity apparent in times of depression and unemployment. It has been claimed that a further measure of land settlement will help, in part at least, towards solving the unemployment problem, and there is no valid, reason why that should not be the case. Under these eircumstances the recent statement made j by the Minister of Lands, the Hon.l E. A. Ransom, relative to the policy of the United Party in regard to closer settlement will doubtless attract attention. The Minister ! referred by way of comparison to i what the Reform Government had j done to increase lan,d settlement ■ during the sixteen months before | vacating office, but as the land; question is a national one it docs not lend itself to party politics. The question is, what has the United Party done in this matter? To this query Mr. Ransom replies that since his party took office 37 properties have been purchased at a cost of £623,309, comprising 59,806 acres and providing ®176 holdings; that the Government has disposed of 2594 holdings comprising 54,500 acres of all tenures; that up to the end of May last there had been 491 new sections offered, 468 of which had been selected, leaving about 50,000 acres still available, while offerings of land for selection in June and July were 37 improved sections,. 6,7 partly improved,'and 57 undeveloped, making a total of 161. This record may fairly be regarded as creditable, though necessarily somewhat costly. Obviously no headway can be made in this business without the expenditure of capital, but provided the return is satisfactory the outlay should prove a good investmient. A case in point quoted by the Minister indicates in some measure what it costs to subdivide large areas. The Ngahura block, near Rotorua, consisting of 2200 acres, was sub-divided into sections of 200 acres, and was improved at an estimated cost of £7 10s per acre. If, as expected by the Minister, it will carry one cow j to 2f acres it should prove a cheap i and payable proposition, but the point to consider is what outlay will be required annually by the. holders of these sections in order to keep up the feeding value of the land? It is one thing to improve some land temporarily at a reasonable outlay, but quite another matter to keep the same land in good heart permanently, especially in such a region as Rotorua. That, however, does not detract from the manifest intention of the present Government to facilitate closer settlement by the purchase of private estates and by improving what is left of the Crown lands suitable for farming. Mr. Ransom claims that the first Land Act of the United Party provided a new era in land settle- , ment, inasmuch as it gave those taking up land that was undevel- ■ oped, or only partially developed, ■ the opportunity of obtaining ad- < vanecs up to CO per cent, of the cost of. improvements, with a maximum of £1250, equivalent to about £6 per acre on a 200-acre holding. It must be admitted , that such a large measure of financial help should prove a great at- ; traction to new settlers, and in : the hands of hard-working men i would give them a good start. It is satisfactory to learn that a pre- ; liminary test in relation to SO : sections under these conditions has already been made, and that : additional sections are to be offered from time to time. Sue- ■ cess will depend upon the fitness of these settlers to work out their ■ own salvation, and it will be inter- < esting to watch how the experiment results.

THE RAILWAYS COMMISSION. Admitting the desirability of another external inquiry into the working of tne railway®, a matter upon which public opinion is by no means unanimous, there is little' fault to find 7 with the personnel of the Royal Commission that ie to undertake that task. To begin with it appears to bo non-political and to contain representatives of all parts of the Dominion and of both town and rural interests. Mr. R. Master®, who is to be chairman, has had wide experience in commercial matters, and liaet been a member of Parliament for an electorate that was chiefly rural. Messrs. J. D. Hall and G. W. Reid are men of considerable standing in Canterbury and Otago, and with Mr. Masters may be expected to approach the inquiry with 'an open mind and, if with no technical knowledge of railway governance, with an understanding of the public’s demands and the manner in which ordinary commercial methods should attempt to satisfy them. The experts of the commission are Messrs. McVilly and Marchbanks. Mr. McVilly as a former general manager of the railways and Mr. Marchbanks as a former railway engineer in the privately owned Manawatu railway will, doubtless, be able to assist the commission on technical matters. Without in the least reflecting upon either, their appointment will seem to some peapie open to the criticism that both represent a school of railway management and. enterprise that is out of date. On the other hand, in Mr. McVilly’s case particularly, knowledge of departmental ways, their weaknesses and their good points, should enable the commission to keep out much irrelevancy and get to the heart of the matter without unduly prolonging the inquiry. That improvement in the railways’ position must be brought about is undoubted. The record for the year ending last March is. gloomy. A decrease in gross revenue of nearly half a million pounds and an increase in working expenses of a similar amountis a serious matter. Whether the general manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, has had a free hand in bringing about economies or whether political exegencies have been allowed to interfere with administration is not clear. It is a point to which the commission should certainly address itself most seriously. With a staff eager to serve, and equipment and services that are always improving, the earnings of the railways show a progressive decline. It seenis evident therefore that if solvency is to be maintained. economies in working must be brought about and new avenues of business sought. If the Royal Commission can show the way its cost, which seems likely to be fairly heavy, will be one of the 'best investments New Zealand has ever made.