The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1909. CUTTING UP THE RUNS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13828, 13 February 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1909. CUTTING UP THE RUNS.

The securing of additional settlers on the land by subdividing pastoral runs into small grazing runs, has been advocated for sonic time by Mr Robert Guthrie, of Burke's Pass, in respect of the Mackenzie Country runs, of which he has personal knowledge. He returns to the charge, in an " interview " reported to-day, the text being the case of the Black Forest run, the lease of which is announced to be sold on the 27th.inst. Mr Guthrie says that this run ought to be divided into three, and brought under the provisions of the Land Act requiring , residence, and the making of improvements by the tenant. Then, looking more broadly at the matter,'' he says that this run should not be dealt with till next year, when an adjoining run will have to be relet. Accepting Mr Guthrie's statements as correct, there can be no Question that the recommendations he makes regarding the treatment of these and other runs, ought to very carefully and favourably considered by the Land Board. A few. weeks ago Mr T. E. Taylor, M.P., wrote to tho Prime Minister, who is also Minister of. Lands, urging that the Canterbury runs the leases of which are about to expire, could bo profitably subdivided; and he suggested that a commission of small farmers would give a different verdict on this question from that of the Classification Board. There is a larger question still, that deserves attention no less than that of the subdivision of the large pastoral runs into smaller ones, and that is how far the runs can bo .reduced by cutting agricultural farms of moderate size out of them. Seeing the out-of-way places that some small farmers are thriving in, the high altitudes at which the plough is at work in some localities, and tho miserable stony land that is" profitably cultivated on the Upper Rangitata plain, it cannot be questioned that if the hill runs were now thrown open to purchase at the old price of £2 per acre, with a; limit of area, and compulsory residence and improvement, there would be a rush for the land, and many a valley would have the smoke of many domestic chimneys added to the morning mists. When the squatters took up; the open land of Canterbury as grazing runs they were shy of the hills, and left them severely alone until all the downs and plains had been applied for. Then' they took up the hills and the mountains, and found them well worth the taking. The farmer cannot go sq high with his plough and drill, but lie can go a long way further back than he has yet done, and it should be no part of the policy of the Lands Department to lock up for any length of time any land, no matter where, that may be brought under the plough' and harrow. 'ln the " Ota go Daily Times" of yesterday appears a short telegram from Cromwell, stating that a meeting had been held there at which it was demanded that before certain runs in that quarter are relet, not only should they be cut up into smaller runs, but that areas of 500 and 1000 acres should be set aside in different parts for close settlement in not more than 100 acre blocks. That seems to be a principle capable of general application. The argument that the runs would be spoiled if that were done to any great extent may l)o disregarded. The unit of prosperity in Canterbury now is not the run but the farm;,' and as the " Lyttelton Times" said on this point, "the province might be better off with the hilltops: lying, idle and the valleys clotted with little homesteads, than it ,is at present with a few prosperous runholdcrs, each controlling tens of thousands of acres." Even.the small grazing run system may be found to be a mistake through its locking up for long terms land which would bear still closer settlement if the facilities for transport were improved. .The "land question" is wider .than the question of freehold *v. leasehold; it is a question of making the best use of land still under the control of tho Crown, and the falling in of the leases of runs raises this wider question at the present time.