BIG LAND HOLDINGS.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2312, 18 March 1930, Page 4

BIG LAND HOLDINGS.

Wc frequently hear politicians and others—especially extreme Labourites —discoursing freely about the evils resulting from the holding of land in big areas. In their denunciation of this evil, and ad\ r ocacy of closer settlement —very excellent in reason—one side of the question is frequently exaggerated while the other side is too often lost sight of altogether. Wc have in New Zealand to-day many thousands | of acres of land which is totally unfitted for closer settlement. The' very nature of the land demands that it be farmed in large areas, and to do this effectively the holders must bo men of financial standing. To put small farmers on this class of land —and especially men Avith little or no capital—is to court disaster. It is a common thing to hear people descanting wildly about the “bloated capitalists being the curse of the country,” and declaring that their land should be taken from them and given to the small farmer, but we hear .very little about what the big landholder has done, and is doing, for the country. This point Avas impressed upon us in a

conversation Avith Mr G. L. Clark, of | this town, one of the oldest and most respected residents of the Waikato, when he expressed the opinion that the residents of Waikato' did not realise what they owed the oAvncrs of the big estates in the Cambridge district, such as the Fencourt, Monavalc, Matamata and Gorton Estates. It was very largely due to these people, said Mr Clark, that such magnificent stock had been introduced to the district, and up-to date farming methods encouraged. These companies had taken up huge areas of very poor, cheap country, and, at enormous labour and great expense, had converted it into smiling, productive farms, which, at a later period, h ;d been subdivided and provided livings for a great many families. The point was emphasised by Mr Clark that practically all those Who inA-csted money in these big undertakings sustained heavy financial loss in consequence, and, unfortunately, this was forgotten. This phase of the question is deserving of consideration. We have always advocated the closer settlement of suitable lands, for in this direction lies progress and greater production, but even this can be overdone, and m«rv great areas of country in the Dominion are as yet totally unfitted for intensive farming. There is a very fine* and important work yet to be done for the pioneer farmer Avho is prepared to take up extensive areas of rough, unproductive country, and avc must not place too heavy a burden on such people, or the country will suffer.