IS REHAB. LAND POLICY RIGHT ONE FOR N.Z.?
Quite a lot of discussion was occasioned that the Northern District convention of the Home Servicemen’s Association at Cambridge, which Mr H. D. London attended as Eastern Bay of Plenty delegate. A Rodney remit that the Rehabilitation Board’s present land policy is not in the best interests of the Ration was not carried, but there was general agreement with the submissions of Mr Winston Smith, a Dominion Councillor from Taranaki, that a constructive policy for the use of undeveloped lands' should be evolved.
Rodney delegates, supporting their remit, put forward the view that, in the long run, the compulsory acqisition of improved and competently farmed land for settlement purposes would not necessarily result in an increase of total production. They claimed it would be better policy for the Government to assist in bringing into full production lands that are only partly developed today. r Smith, who spoke as. a guest, not as a delegate to the convention, pointed out that the general plan for the present policy was drafted by members of the R.S.A. before the war, having in mind the experiences of returned men after the first world war, and being determined that such things should not happen again.
That policy, he said, was partly obsolete before the war was over, and that was why it was not working altogether satisfactorily today. Discussing possible ways of tackling the problem, Mr Smith said, “I believe we have to. forget this economic unit business. I believe we have to take a very long view —a two-generation view. We have to educate the public to the fact that development of the back country has to be done, but it is an uneconomic proposition. Are we prepared to accept that responsibility?” He appealed to those particularly interested in lahd development problems to get together and evolve some constructive plan that could be placed before' the next conference and followed up.
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 99, 15 June 1949, Page 5
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325IS REHAB. LAND POLICY RIGHT ONE FOR N.Z.? Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 99, 15 June 1949, Page 5
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