LAND SETTLEMENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 64, 12 June 1942, Page 5

LAND SETTLEMENT

NEW IMMIGRATION SCHEME LARGE INFLUX ANTICIPATED At the an nun] Provincial Conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union and on behalf of the liotorua Sub-Province Mr Iv. S. Cox moved: "That in vjew of the urgent need for immigration, the Government be urged to reorganise the Lands Department to facilitate the absorbing of immigrants on the I'olloAving lines:-— (1) To encourage private capital being used to break in land. (2) Where Government money is used for Land Settlement, that the present system be altered to ensure economic improvement of undeveloped lands. (3) To ensure this the Department be responsible only for the policy and total amount to be spent on any given block. (4) That the present system of overseers be replaced by responsible managers who should have complete control of their blocks of land as regards working conditions, etc. and report to the Department regularly on the financial side of operations. (•>) Tlie Department to appoint local committees to assist the Department in formulating policy for different blocks of lands, and to supervise the manager. (fi) The committee to have the power to arrange closer settlement, and to select settlers, when land is ready." Mr Cox said that a large influx of Immigrants could be expected aftei' the war, and a lot of work would need to be done at once. Workers were being told that in the event of immigration they would lose their .jobs. Farmers knew better than that, Another three millions added to our present population would go a long

way to protect the new industries that had sprung up in the Dominion. One tiling Avas ccrtam—we could not continue to hold this country with a population of 1y 2 million people. We should visualise a population of "i,000,000 in live years, and double that number in 10 years. We must get the land developed, he said, and that would involve a complete reorganisation of our land administration. There Avas glaring extravagance under the Lands and Surve,y administration. Decentralisation of authority was needed. At present there was too much control from officials in offices, and not enough from practical men. The remit after considerable discussion was carried by a large majority.