SETTLEMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20104, 24 March 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

SETTLEMENT

IN WEST AUSTRALIA ACHIEVEMENTS IN TWO YEARS According to the latest reports from Western Australia there is evidently great activity in land settlement there. The official report of that State discloses the fact that during the past two years over 12.000,000 acres have been aken up in small farms and grazing runs while the Minister for Lands in announcing the preparation of 1500 blocks for new settlement, states that he is confident that if he advertised the opening of 5000 blocks this year he cuuld have at least 10,000 applicants from, the eastern states. This being the case how it is that our own Minister of Lands takes such a pessimistic view regarding settlement in New Zealand? Why is it that New Zealand which possesses many advantages over Western Australia for farm-

ing and farmers, is losing its rural population while the newest Australian {State is gaining thousands of new farmers yearly?

'1 he only answers to these questions must be found in the difference of official methods. The Minister of Lands for Western Australia is taking steps to attract new settlers. The Minister of Lands for New Zealand (by his pessimistic attitude and by his utter failure to provide new lands on attractive terms) is preventing new settlement. Grievances Magnified.

There is, of course, some little excuse for Mr McLeod’s sad outlook, lie came into office at a time when the Government was trying to find some remedies for the various mistakes it had made during the period of repatriation and the chief of the remedies was the reduction m the price of the much over-valued land • sold or leased to returned soldiers. Once having begun to apply this remedy there was no stopping it. Men with legitimate grievances, as well as men with little to complain of, saw that they had only to grumble loudly enough and they would get reductions in mortgages and rebates of rents, and, as was natural, there were grumbles and complaints iron: all parts of the Dominion and from, all classes of settlers-

There were, of course, many genuine cases of real hardship, but iiftrying to alleviate these the way was opened to everyone who happened to be a Crown tenant or who owed money on Crown land.

It would have required a man to be much more patient and much more hopeful than Mr McLeod to escape the depressing influence of the thousands < ; f complaints which must have reached him regarding over-valuation of holdings and the impossibility of farming under the financial conditions which had been imposed upon soldier settlers in the after-war period; but a more patient and hopeful man would not have let these complaints colour his whole outlook on land questions.

Vast Empty Spaces, . If. "Western Australia can attract settlers by the thousands there is every reason to expect that New Zealand could do the same. The chief attractions which Western Australia possess are the cheapness of its lands; the ease with which they may be acquired, and the ready assistance and the encouragement offered to now settlers. New Zealand could, if it liked, offer just the same attractions or it might with advantage offer them in a more substantial form. There are some millions of acres lying idle in the Dominion at the, present time and it would only require a book-keeping alteration to offer this land at a price which would suit applicants. Terms and regulations could be adjusted so as to encourage settlement rather than repel it and the Government, apart from finding land for its own people, could by systematic advertising attract people from countries overseas. Given reasonable access to land, the climatic, scenic, social, and general advantages of the Dominion would outweigh the attractions of Western Australia. There is no country in the world where farming can be carried on more successfully or more pleasantly than in New Zealand. Its agricultural and pastoral industries arc already well etsablished; its farm products have won a high reputation and it possesses overseas markets capable of great expansion.

The rural districts are becoming well roaded and well equipped with the conveniences of civilisation. In a little while cheap hydro-electric power will be available for nearly every settler and at the present time postal, telegraphic, and telephonic conveniences are common even in the remote backblocks. Educational facilities which cannot be surpassed by any country in the world are provided so that it can only be the lack of settlement facilities which prevents the immigration of farmers from other countries’ and the successful establishment of an ever-in-creasing proportion of our native-born upon the land. Mr McLeod should take a lesson from his colleague in Western Australia and do for New Zealand what is being done so successfully in that, country.