LAND SETTLEMENT

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1784, 20 July 1926, Page 5

LAND SETTLEMENT

TROUBLES OF THE SETTLER.

QUESTION OF SUBSIiDY,

Difficulties of land settlement in New Zealand were reviewed in the House of Representatives on Friday evening by the Minister of Land s (the Hon. A. D. McLeod) who drew attention to the relative question of subsidising those who take up the holdings. The Government did. not propose to throw the matter up; in fact, legislative proposals,'it was predicted, would appear in the near future.

Replying to the suggestion that the Government should boldly face the question of land settlement, and, while providing for the needs of New Zealanders who wanted to go on the land, also take advantage of the British Government's subsidised Empire scheme, the Minister dealt somewhat fully with the problem. He s/aid the question resolved itself into two parts—the settlement of our own people who desired to go on the land, and the bringing in of people from the crowded Old Land who also desired to become settlers. But there were also other aspects of the problem that must be considered at the same time. He could assure the committee—the House was considering the estimates in committee at the time—that no man could have given closer attention to the whole matter during the last twelve months than he had. They must first ask themselves what subsidy was the State prepared to give towards the settling on the land, of those people who desired to go there. That wais an important question which had to be decided in the near fujture. LAND AVAILABLE. In reply to an interjection as to the class of lands available, the Minister stated that there were no lands available worth mentioning apart from the poorer lands. There were many areas that were just on the borderline, and which in capable hands and with capital available could be developed with advantage; but the fluctuations of the market in recent years had cleared the man with only £IOOO or £2OOO out of that kind of land altogether.

A Labour member asked how much a man required to enable him to go on the land with a decent hope of succefes. The Minister: I do not think there is a possibility of a married man with a family being able to build up a home for them undter £2500, or about that. You can estimate what he would have to pay for his cows to start with. In the case of such a settler, where you have another industry, in the locality going on side by side with the farming —such as the timber industry, or you might have isome public works going on in the district where the settler can obtain work at slack times —that is a factor. But in the case of the timbermSlling industry, as the timber is worked out, then the troubles of the' farmer-settler begin right away. The same remark would apply to the public works running out. I am quite sure that the Empire settlement loan, on the proposed £SOO baisis, would be absolutely worthless in the case of settlers of- the kind I have mentioned, and that if we took it up seriously our proportion in each case would well) inside the five years' period soon be running up to £,2500. 'OVERSEA SETTLERS. The Minister went on to remark that he would not offer any encouragement to people to come to New Zealand from overseas, unless he, as a practical farmer knowing something of the difficulties and trials of .the man on the land, could rely on those people doing very hard work over a series of years, so that as a result in the end they would have something more than a living—in fact, a competency. The Minister referred to the statement that there were several thousand bona fide teettlers looking for land, in New Zealand now—New Zealanders—and mentioned that he had noticed in the newspapers a reference that in New South- Wales a block of land had! been cut up, and that there had been something like 7000 applicants for sections. "Bu|t," added the Minister, "that is no evidence that there were 7000 landless people in the district in question. The evidence was that there were 7000 people looking for a good thing, and the committee can draw its own conclusion." A similar condition obtained in New Zealand at times. This country, however, had to face questions like that of the Rangataiki swamp, and of the pastoral runs, which had to be brought into cultivation. SUBSIDISING LAND SETTLEMENT. In that connection the questioner, the general community subsidising land settlement had to be considered. The Government had no hesitation in calling upon the public to assist the secondary industries to the extent of large isums annually, 'and to' his idea the subsidising of land settlement wag just as important as the subsidising of the secondary industries, which cost the general taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds. No doubt criticism wouldl be directed against himself as Minister for Lands, and also against the Government, in connection with such a suggestion. But the question was how were they going -to develop the lands referred to under a series of years without, some help of the kind. The question of buying land for closer settlement at a fair price and putting it into small areas for dairying and. other purposes, was a farreaching problem, and it was there among other things that the difficulty sliarted. "In conclusion," stated the Minister, "I can assure the House that no question has given myself and tlie Government more conlsideration than that of land settlement, and we are not going to throw the matter up, but I hope in the near future to be able to bring d'own some proposals which will be an attempt in the direction I have indicated."