IDLE FARM LANDS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 5

IDLE FARM LANDS

DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ISLAND. MR. RANSOM’S AMBITION. Christchurch, July 14. A statement of his policy of bringing idle farm lands into production, with particular reference to the possibilities of extending irrigation work in Canterbury, was made by the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, before a gathering of farmers and local body representatives on Ashton Settlement at Seafield to-day. “What I have been most concerned about during my period of . office,” said Mr. Ransom, “is to make my mark by bringing into production lands that have previously been idle. I am very much more interested in that than in cutting up big estates that are already well farmed. So far we have concentrated our efforts in the North Island, where there is a greater area of idle Crown lands lending themselves to intense cultivation. “Since 1929, when we passed legislation enabling the Government to spend money on developmental works of this kind, some of the results have . been almost unbelievable, particularly in the pumice belt and in the gum country of the north. I felt that the South Island might be grieved at the fact that work had been taken up almost wholly in the north. I realised that it was up to me to get similar work, going here, and irrigation seemed the most suitable plan.” The Minister said he was known in the House as “a bit of a crank” on pumice country, but he believed he had shown that that land was capable of extraordinary development. He referred in particular to one area of land in the Onepu Settlement, near Teteko, in the Bay of Plenty, which had been known' as “the black desert.” He had been advised that this land was capable of production. Soil analyses had been taken, and in 1931 the Government had set to -work to develop a few thousand acres. The first settlers had gone on in June, 1931, and last year, when he visited the block, he had found one progressive man who had taken no fewer than 18,000 pounds of butterfat off 120 acres, and all from heifers. Mr. Ransom said-he would not suggest that this figure represented a fair average, though naturally he was putting, so to speak, his best results in the window. “I feel that much of the lighter country in Canterbury can be brought to a higher state of production by irrigation, intensive cultivation and manuring,” he went on. “I would like to see experiments tried on z a variety of lands, including rich lands, so that we can see how to irrigate economically. I know that results can be obtained. The whole question is whether we can obtain them economically. “Irrigation in Central Otago had been successful,” he said, “but the costs were high and many of the settlers had been unable to meet their obligations. It was obviously no use going ahead with irrigation schemes unless they could be put on a proper and economic basis. He himself was a believer in settlement on smaller areas, such as the small-farm scheme was providing. While he had secured suitable blocks of land in the North Island, aggregating some thousands of acres, he had yet to find them in Canterbury and the south, and he was most anxious to spread the settlement as evenly as possible through the Dominion.