UNPRODUCTIVE LANDS.

Waipa Post, Volume XX, Issue 1244, 18 May 1922, Page 4

UNPRODUCTIVE LANDS.

A TELLING argument in favour of legislation compelling the intensive cultivation of holdings, as advocated in these columns a few weeks ago, is offered by Mr P. M Page, forest extension officer at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, who has just completed a twomonths' tour of the North Island. " New Zealand," he says, " is primarily a producing country, and yet it must be apparent to any observer who travels over the North Island that not one the land capable of yielding returns is being worked according to its capacity." He went even fur- ' ther, and estimated that fully a quarA|er of the land he had seen is not producing a quarter, of what might be obtained from it. We hear a good deal about the evils of Maori ownership, but the Maori, says Mr Page, is not the only landowner who keeps good land locked up. " There are people in the North Auckland district who have held fine lands for sixty or seventy years, and it is still unproductive; they have done nothing to improve it and make it yield crops." This is highly undesirable, especially in a country needing closer settlement and intensive cultivation. The spirit of speculation enters into the matter, for Mr Page assures us that many of the settlers are merely holding on to their lands until the market improves, in the hope of being able to dispose of their properties at a good profit. The statements prove our contention that the land at present in occupation is not being properly utilised, and indicate the necessity for administrative or legislative action with a view* to compelling improvement and proper cultivation, so that production may be increased to the maximum.