WANTED—A LANDS POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 532, 12 June 1909, Page 6

WANTED—A LANDS POLICY.

E . SixI,—lf1,— lf any further evidence were required 5 to show how utterly the Administration have , failed to carry on a Vigorous land settlement policy, the Minister for Lands Buppliea j it in your contemporary, by stating that, in s the Waimarino Block, ho has a hundred ■ thousand acres of good land, and an un- ' limited quantity in the Nelson district. Ho l might also have included the vast 1 blocks ; of Crown lands on the East Coast.^Holaanga, • bay of Islands, and Weßt Coast. . Here is ; a Minister who has many hundreds,of thoui sands of acres of land at his disposal, who . must be aware of the great numbers of por- | sons who are desirous of acquiring lands of I this description. Here, 1 say, we find a 1 Minister who, notwithstanding the fact'that • the is losing the bone K and sinew • of her population, in the exodus that is 1 taking place, has been so utterly indifferent 1 to this serious question, as to~ actually allow huge blocks of land to ho idle, on the plea that he is short of a few surveyors.'.. • The • real facts of tho caso are, there is no lands policy. It is a question of drift, : interspersed by a'few spasmodic attempts to quieten the public, by throwing open a few sections of land in such isolated situations that the unfortunate selectors are as firmly marooned as if they were on a dosert island. Ono has only to travel over the back-blocks of Taranaki, and north of Auckland, to sco'the, unnecessary hardships imposed on the pioneer settler. The true facts are that the Ward Administration has shirked the question of waste lands settlement,'and in its place initiated a policy of purchasing, at inflated values improved lands, for the purpose of settlement. This, no doubt, in a way meets the requirements of the man without capital or experience, but, even then, on a small and often inferior pieco of ground, with a high rental, he will find it practically a slave's life, without much hope of acquiring a competency, and the ' community generally receive but small gain from this class of settlement; w» ereas, in the case of unimproved country, it causes an appreciable movement in all classes of labour and trade. That there are ample waste lands at tho of tie Minister is ■ shown by his instructions to the various commissioners to set aside blocks as special settlements for discharged Civil Servants. But I fail to seo the wisdom of placing men, who probably their lives, upon unimproved bush country. What -will -these people understand about have never done a day's manual labour in , bushfalling; logging, ditching, fencing, and the-hundred and ono things the farmer has to do with his own bands? I should say' this is the class of settlor that would be bqst suited on tho improved lands. But I would liketo'- ask', 'while' on'this'subjeot: Why exclusively for Civil Servants? Air not the requirements of the goneral public to'be considered, as of equal urgency? the State employee is to stop from'his'blUet into ' practically a State home.- There-are hundreds who have spent.months, in search" of suitable land to settle on at their own ex- .' pense and loss of time—are theso not-en-titled to a small amount of consideration, or are we to understand, that the man who is able to hoe his row .without State aid, is , not required in this country? Surely it is evident that <' a practical and progressive Minister' for Lands is urgently required,— lam, etc, ; .';■ ■ , PATBIOT. . Jane 9. -- • ->.