SMALL HOLDINGS FOR WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 859, 4 July 1910, Page 4

SMALL HOLDINGS FOR WORKERS

THEIR GRADUAL DISAPPEARANCE). An application for approval of a transfer involving the amalgamation of two village settlement holdings at Mangaweka was Hie occasion of some interesting remarks by the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr James Mackenzie) at tho meeting of tho Wellington Land Board. Ho d:d not new such applications with favour, but he admitted that questionsof extreme difficulty as. applying to tho whole of the land distnot, were involved ■ Tho village settlement lots, which ranged from one to 100 acres, were originally "intended for workers, not as a means of making-a living, but as homo lots, where they could keep a. cow or two, and make a little to supplement their wages. Conditions had changed, and these men had to look olsewhero for work. There was no one of their own class to buy them out, or if there was the prospective, pur. chaser probably had insufficient capital. Consequently, they had to sell one to another, with a view to one family eking out a living by dairying, or the section, fell into tho hands of a larger farmer. It sometimes happened that the villager depended on the proceeds of the sale of his holding to make a start on a laraer holding elsewhere. The trouble the Commissioner foresaw was that when other workers wanted these small holdings, there would he none available owing to the sections having been merged together or added to others. The application before the board mas granted, the Commissioner dissenting, but the members agreed that in future this class of transfer would have to be checked, though the side-issues involved made tho question, a difficult one to deal with.