Thames Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1938. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 20427, 1 October 1938, Page 2

Thames Star.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1938. LAND SETTLEMENT.

"With mafic* towards none: with charity for all; with firmneM In the riant, a» God givei u* to ••• tht right."—Lincoln.

The falling off in the country's primary production is no doubt responsible for the added attention being given by tho Government to the question of land settlement. Its inactivity in this respect oVer the last three years has accentuated the drift to the cities and caused a shrinkage in the Dominion's source of wealth. When expounding the Labour Party's land policy the Prime Minister said: "Every man worth his salt wants to work for himself." Endeavouring to recover an impression created by his colleagues, Mr. SaVage committed himself very definitely when he said: "Our opponents say that wo want to take his land from the farmer and socialise it. Our aim is to put the farmer on the land, not to take him off. It is to ffive him securitv of tenure. . . . What

we want to give the farmer is security over a long period. We will not destroy his inheritance. It is no use asking men to go to the land without security of tenure." Whether the policy enunciated by tho Prime Minister is that which was promised by the Hon. W. Nash is still not clear, but in any case it does not indicate any marked advance in the solution of the problem. The Government would not simply send people on to the land, Mr. Savage said. The Public Works Department, under Mr Seniple's direction, would first prepare the land by the use of modern machinery and then tell the settlers to "cro in and make a living under conditions of real freedom." Anyone with experience of this "breaking in" of undeveloped land by the Public Works Department, by the use of modern machinery or otherwise, will know that the process is extremely costly and often entirely uneconomic if the whole cost is loaded on the land. If it is not loaded on the land the general taxpayer must bear fhe burden of the increased Public Works ■ Department bill. Any method of developing waste land is costly to either the individual settler or the State. If the settler is provided with roads and with finance at reasonable rates he as an individual striving for his own betterment will work out his salvation far more economically from a national point of view than would be possible under the expensive methods of the Public Works. Department.