LAND SETTLEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17839, 11 October 1929, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT.

The Land Settlement Bill has been passed by the House of Representatives and is not likely to be greatly amended in the Upper House. It will empower the Government to raise additional loans up to a total of £5,000,000 for settlement undertakings. It will remove the very serious check introduced in 1925 on the State’s powers in purchasing estates. The Act then passed gave landowners the right to name a price below which they would not sell to the Government; that price was to be entered on a secret roll and was to constitute the valuation for the State’s land-tax but not for local rates. The new Bill will give the Government the same power of purchase as under the Public Works Act—that is to say, the price paid will be the fair value plus compensation to the owner for incidental loss. Another provision is that local advisory committees maybe appointed to assist the Development Board. The suggestion that such committees could do valuable work, just as the repatriation committees had done, was made to the Minister on a visit to Hamilton, and he appears to have acted upon it. The extent to which it will be actually used depends on those who have the administration of the law now and in future, but it is at least gratifying that the value of local .knowledge as an assistance to placing the right people on the right land has been recognised in the Bill. Several members of the House raised objections to the proposal that the Government should have power to develop land before cutting it up for settlement. It is true that in some districts the development work is better left to individual pioneers, but those who had experience on the poorer lands of the pumice country during the early days are very positive in their belief that development cannot be carried out cheaply or satisfactorily except on a large scale. The graduated land-tax makes it virtually impossible for private capital to undertake the work, and it is therefore highly advisable that the State departments should have this power to break in the difficult country and offer the settlers a fair chance. Moreover, this method will certainly bring the land into productivity far more quickly than relying on individual settlers to develop a few acres from year to year as their resources may or may not permit. The clause enabling the State to do the surveying, draining, roading, fencing, clearing and grassing of the land, to put up the buildings and acquire the stock necessary for the development work, is one of the most valuable in the Bill. It was passed by a good majority. The only amendment of any moment made in the Bill related to the constitution of the Development Board. The Minister was to have with him on that board five departmental heads, but he heeded the demand that room should be made for a practical farmer and introduced an amended clause providing that the board should consist of the Minister, the heads of the departments of Lands and Agriculture and one other person to be chosen by the Minister.