LORD LOVAT AND LAND SETTLEMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 220, 17 September 1928, Page 6

LORD LOVAT AND LAND SETTLEMENT

J ORD LOVAT, who lias very successfully been conducting negotiations with regard to immigration in Canada, has announced his intention of visiting Australia and New Zealand on a similar mission. Lord Lovat is keen on land settlement schemes in the Dominions for the absorption of British immigrants. As he is a large landowner himself—he owns 181,000 acres at Home—it has satirically been suggested that he should settle the surplus population of the British Isles upon his own estates. It is not at all likely, however, that any large proportion of these 181,000 acres is anything better than uncultivable land, and Lord Lovat’s genuine desire to promote settlement for the good of the Empire may not be doubted. The Canadian authorities have co-operated willingly with Lord Lovat, and the missioner has no doubt that he will receive the same hearty co-operation in the Antipodes. Provided he has suggestions which appear to us in this part of the world to be sound, he may have no fear of unwilling ears or unhelping hands. Both Australia and New Zealand require immigrants to till the as yet unworked lands. The question is how to make the land available as a payable proposition, and to obtain the class of settler that can successfully bring unproductive soil into production? Effective land settlement is at once the country’s greatest need and its greatest problem.