LAND SETTLEMENT PALN

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1932, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT PALN

MR. COATES FINISHES WORK

THE DETAILS NOT YET DIVULGED.

CONSIDERATION BY CABINET.

STATE POWER TO ACQUIRE LAND.

(By Wire— Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Hight. Although he is not yet in a position to discuss the details of his land settlement scheme for the unemployed, the Minister of Employment, the Rt. Hon, J. G. Coates, stated to-night that finality had been reached after a further conference with the departmental heads to-day. The scheme decided upoh will be submitted to the Treasury for criticism and will then come before the Cabinet for consideration. If legislation is required the matter will be brought before the House as soon as possible. The major difficulty regarding the scheme, said Mr. Coates, would be to launch it without much available finance. Evidently Mr. Coates is relying to a large extent upon the appeal for areas of land from farmers who have fairly large holdings, because he said that the scheme could be successful only if it were accepted and supported by the people. However, he discountenanced the idea that it would be necessary to acquire land by compulsion and said that he.wanted it to be clearly understood that if power were taken in that direction it would be kept well in the background. It is understood that the scheme involves the Government leasing for a period areas of land not actively cultivated, and having power to exercise certain rights at the end of that period. If the Government is given powers for the compulsory acquisition of land they will be used only in so far as they apply to leaseholds. Actually the Government has had authority to acquire land by compulsion since 1894, and the following 13 estates, comprising 229,327 acres and providing a total of 1006 holdings, were all compulsorily taken: Ardgowan, Argyll, Carrington, Culverden, Flaxbourne, Forest Gate, Hatuma, Kumeroa, Lindsay, Matamata, Tawaha, Te Arai and Waimana. Although no land for settlement has been taken in this way since 1909, the Government’s powers remain, and were expressed as recently as 1925 in the consolidated Land for Settlements Act.