USING OF WASTE AREAS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1930, Page 13

USING OF WASTE AREAS

GROUP SETTLEMENT SCHEME

DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dannevirke, Last Night. The Hon. E. A. Ransom (Minister of Lande), in the course'of a pre-sessional address at Dannevirke this evening made further reference to the Government’s proposals in regard to land settlement. He had enjoyed his work ae Minister of Public Works, he said, but he recognised that in the new portfolio he had undertaken a petition of the greatest importance to the progress of the Dominion. One of the principal difficulties confronting the Dominion was that of unemployment, and in the Minister’s opinion land settlement would prove to be the greatest possible factor in providing permanent employment in productive work. New Zealand was only partially developed. He hoped as Minister of Lando to be able to introduce into his department such systems of lend development as would go a long towards meeting the surplus labour problem. The land legislation of laot session providing the necessary machinery was the finest land Act so far enacted for the development of the so-called waste areas. He was convinced that there were millions of acres of Crown lands which would ultimately be made available for selection in small areas. The great weakness of the land legislation of the past was the fact that it contained no provision for financial assistance to tliose taking up such areas. Advances were now available to any experienced man taking up such land, and in the near future lie hoped to have hundreds of men engaged in development work. In accordance with its policy to create closer settlement throughout the Dominion, the Government would continue to purchase suitable improved estates for subdivision, but in his opinion much greater benefit would accrue to the Dominion by a vigorous policy of developing idle lands. In addition to the systems already in hand he proposed to introduce something in the nature of group settlement whereby blocks of land would be surveyed into reasonably sized sections and applications called from experienced men to clear a portion of each section, construct roads, erect fences and hutments, and to take up the subdivisions when there was a reasonable prospect of the settler being able to carry on. It was not proposed to clear the whole o. the land, but to give the settler a fair start to enable him to develop the remainder of his section by his own labour. It was not merely a visionary scheme; he had advocated it for years, and it had already been put into practical operation by the Hon. Sir Apirana Ngata in connection with native settlement.

Referring to the possibilities of increased production, the Minister skated that the Dominion only touched tlie fringe of its primary wealth. Denmark provided an example, which New Zealand could well emulate. It was only the size of Southland, and yet in 1927 it exported 25 niillions sterling in primary produce and 24 millions in export of meat, principally pork and bacon. The comparative New Zealand exports were 17 millions and nine millions respectively. He looked for tremendous development in the dairying industry throughout the pumiceous belt of the North Island, which had proved so responsive to modern methods of pasture management, and in which he believed a great deal of additional settlement could be provided. The Minister made a tour of the coastal portion of his electorate during the day and received farmers’ deputaf ns. He returns to Wellington in the morning.