LAND SETTLEMENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21308, 30 March 1939, Page 12

LAND SETTLEMENT

A VISION OF THE FUTURE Bv telegraph-Press WELLINGTON, March 29. The influence the demonstration on the West Coast of clearing land by high-powered machinery was likely to have on land development in the future was indicated by the Prime Minister in an interview this evening. Mr Savage, who said the Ministers of the Crown who had seen the demonstration would be reporting to the Cabinet, referred to the need for the use of modern methods in preparing land for settlement. “What we have in mind is to revolutionise the preparation of land for settlement,” said Mr Savage. “It is hoped by the use of modern methods to bring land to the stage at which it is almost ready to produce before settlers go on it. I know from my own experience something of the primitive methods that have been adopted in the past. No doubt by the use of modern machinery land can be prepared for settlement for a quarter of the cost involved under the very best efforts in the past. As soon as we are satisfied that machinery offers the best method of clearing land for settlement, it will be our job to get hold of land adjacent to the railways and highways and proceed with the work of clearing it. We are out to increase production not only from secondary industries, but from primary industries as well. Thousands of men in this country are anxious to get on a decent piece of land Iron, which they will be able to obtain a return almost immediately. I can visualise the land first being cleared, fenced and cultivated, and housing accommodation provided so that potential settlers can go straight to work and produce.”