LAND SETTLEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18623, 29 April 1932, Page 9

LAND SETTLEMENT.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l read with interest and appreciation the very practical and broadminded leading article in your issue of April 16. It appears to me as though the majority of editors'-can take a good lesson from you regarding their leading articles and instead of writing all one-sided matter, follow your example and write editorials which aim at the mending of the country’s ills to benefit all classes. I notice that your name dor^_not appear among the list'Of names of editors numbering ten who were recently called to Wellington by the Government to advise Cabinet as to what legislation should be introduced during the present session

of Parliament. Judging from opinions

expressed by you in the article herein referred to and to many other articles

of yours it appears as though you could have siven Cabinet some very sound and practical advice regarding the handling of this very much bungled and stand-still country. Therefore it appears rather unfortunate that you were not included in the members of what can be termed the “ Chief Advisory Board to the New Zealand Cab-

inet,” which board consists of newspaper editors from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. In your article of April 16 you men-

tioned several works which could be profitably undertaken at the present time by unemployed men, but I notice

that you did not mention the development for settlement, purposes. Of the Taupo area. According to a statement made in Taranaki by the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates during an electioneering tour some months ago there are 5,000,000 acres of land awaiting development in the Taupo area. When the Reform Party was in power it started to put a railway into the block but the late Sir .Joseph Ward stopped- the work in favour of motor roads and aerial conveyance. The fact that the Reform Party (members of which are mostly men of farming experience) wanted to put a 'Costly railway into the block proves that the land is suitable for settlement purposes. Then we have the opinions of many far-seeing men, Sir James Parr for instance, who all maintain that there is a great future ahead for the Taupo area. The present Government also has various window dressing works on hand surrounding the Taupo area and such works have proved beyond, doubt that the land is suitable for' settlement. In face of all this it appears strange that the Government absolutely refuses to undertake any development work on tiie Taupo vacant lands. I fail to see the wisdom of the Government purchasing the Galatea Estate at a cost of about £IOO,OOO when there are 5,000,000 acres of undeveloped land next door, some Of which Is of equally , good quality if not better, than -Gala- I tea. The settlement of Galatea will only be accomplished by men possessing considerable cash and it will not J do any good as regards reducing the number of unemployed men, whereas had the Taupo area been acquired for j settlement purposes under the 4G Un- I employment Scheme many thousands I of men would have been employed j carving out homes for themselves and j families. j

Perhaps a number of your readers are not aware of the fact that the Government did actually throw open nino sections under the 4C Scheme just previous to December 2, (election day) and it received 300 applications for them. However, when the election was over the supply of land ran out, yet Mr Coates’ maintains that there are 5,000,000 acres lying idle within the area under discussion. A tremendous sum of money has been expended on unproductive works by the Unemployment Board and it is time such waste of public money was stopped and instead of relief workers being engaged making golf links, love walks, tourists’ rest places, fishermen’s camps, and many other such like unproductive works, all physically fit men should bo drafted out onto idle lands such as the Taupo area under the 4G Settlement Scheme. If such a scheme had been in foreo •some weeks ago and all suitable men drafted out of Auckland City there may not have been so much window smashing, if the Government is prepared to settle land under the 4C Scheme there will bo no scarcity of first-class men suitable for the development work, but it appears very evident that no extensive land development scheme will be undertaken while the present “ confu-sionist,” party is in power, and all it, intends to do is to keep on changing conditions slightly from week to week, it, has not, and apparently will not, make- any attempt to change the cause of the present unrest of the people. These Taihoa politieul bunglers appear to lie ignorant of iiie fact that there is only one way of removing discord among Ihe people and Dial is by removing Die cause of it. Mr Coates was many months studying out a dose settlement scheme and when it came to light it was nothing short of a glaring failure, t inier ii one has to beg for land ami slock, then hog for work in tho vicinity of Die “ Beggar's Plot." Mr Coates’ proposal is already doomed as we have an over-supply of market gardeners and a number of them are on the lists of unemployed.- I am, elc., SPEED THE I’l.nrcH. Xcw Piymou th, April 2i, 1032,