LAND FOR SETTLEMENT; DEBATE IN THE HOUSE

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 November 1950, Page 5

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT; DEBATE IN THE HOUSE

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA).— In the House of Representatives today, Mr. Herron (Govt., Awarua), speaking to the Land Settlement Account, said hundreds of young men, of about 27 or 28 years of age, who had grown up since the war, were getting impatient because they could not obtain land on which to begin farming on their own account. Unless they could soon receive some help from the State they would be forced to drift into town employment. There was one block 12 miles from Invercargill on which 300 young men could be settled. The Minister of Lands (Mr. Corbett) said he had already called for a report on this block. Mr. Skinner (Opp., Buller), former Minister of Lands, said that according to the latest returns, only 214 farm units for the settlement of ex-service-men had been bought in the last 12 months. It appeared that less land was being bought than had been anticipated, and certainly not enough was being purchased. The vote of £1,000,000 for livestock was also inadequate. Mr. Jonnstone (Govt., ( Raglan urged that unoccupied Crown lands infested with noxious weeds should be handed over to private individuals. That would be the best way of clearing them. He also asked that exservicemen who wished to break in a block of land should be allowed to do so, «nd not be obliged to take up a fully-developed area. Mr. Corbett said the Government’s policy was that idle land should be cleared of noxious weeds by good husbandry rather than by money grants. He said the vote for purchasing land for ex-servicemen was only £lOOO less than was spent last year, and the vote for development was £250,000 greater. It was inevitable that less land would be bought, and that as development proceeded more would be settled on land previously purchased. It was the present Government’s policy to get away from the “jackboot” policy of land confiscation, and rather to de-

velop land which was now undeveloped than to cut up land already developed and in production. The Government’s policy would give a decided stimulus Io land settlement. I The vote was passed.