FIGURES WITH A MORAL.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17471, 3 June 1922, Page 3

FIGURES WITH A MORAL.

LAUD OCCUPIED AND NOT IMPKOVED. An article in the current issue of the "Forest Service Newsletter" directs attention to the considerable proportion of occupied land in this country that is registered as unimproved. The writer of the article (Forest Assistant A. M. Perham) cites the following figures, observing that they emphasise the necessity for agricultural improvement in the Dominion:— Acres. Total occupied land ... 43,546,757 .Unimproved - 20,88b,928 Improved ... •■• 18,159,829 This means that much more than half of the occupied land in the Dominion (approximately 58 per cent.) is unimproved. The details by .land districts of the occupied land unimproved and improved in the North and feoutu Islands are as follow: — Occupied Occupied unimproved, improved, Land district. a , c ™ B ,- n „ /r^os S£mr kland $$ *ss Hawked Bav '■■ 1585 233 3,115,633 (Sgton - 1,313,310 3,504,994 Total N. Island 6,836,218 11,797,897 VoUor •• 967,190 357,809 Marlborough '•■• 2,190406 378,852 Westland ■•• 1,634,9/8 187,206 Canterbury ... 5 321250 2,756,915 Otaco .- 6,525,925 1,393,525 Southland . ... 1,910,961 1,337,625

Total S. Island 18,550,710 6,331,932 The uuoccupied lands of the Dominion, including all waste lands, have an area of 22,550,053 acres. "It has to be definitely understood, Mr Perham remarks, "that a large proportion of unimproved laud is incapable of being brought to a. highly productive state, but there is no doubt that there is scope for very great improvements." Finally he draws the moral: "Leave the forests to produce their crops until the unimproved lands in the hands of the individual are brought to a reasonable standard of production."