LAND SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1245, 29 September 1911, Page 4

LAND SETTLEMENT.

A veryi interesting discussion was opened in the Legislative Council yesterday by the Hon. J. D. Omiond on the question of land settlement. The general public know very little of what is going on in the matter of settling the waste lands of the country, and although in a hazy sort of way the necessity for turning the unproductive lands of the country to good account is, of course, generally recognised, the vital importance of the question is not properly appreciated save by the few. Had it been otherwise the slow and unsatisfactory development which has been recorded in reccnt years would have provoked the very deep resentment of the whole community. Each session the Opposition denounces the Government for its neglect, and each session the Government comes down with an array of statistics to show what it has donp, and between tho two conflicting versions of what is happening a bewildered public is unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion on how much or how little blame should bo apportioned. The tiuth of the matter is that while hundreds of thousands of acres of Crown and Native lands ai'e lying idle, hundreds of would-be settlers are striving to secure land on which to make their homes and to add to the productiveness and wealth of the country. The ballot system, as pointed out by Mr. Op.jiond, has broken the heart of many a sterling settler who has wasted time and money again and again entering his name for sections which have gone to lucky speculators. The ballot system, has failed, and it is largely due, as Mr. Anstey pointed out, to the method of administration. The genuine landless settler does not receive tho advantage at the ballot which it is to the interest of the country to give him. But while this undoubted injustice exists and militates against the, best class of settler, something more than the ballot system is at fault. Jin. Orjioxh is a believer in special settlement associations—a system which has proved very successful fin the paet—and there is uo doubt

that this method ia a good one. But first of all it is necessary to provide the . land. In his spcech yesterday Mr. Oriiond mentioned a portion of the country which is specially deserving of attention, and which in duo course must be traversed by an important railway system. But how long will it ha before this land is thrown open for settlement at the present rate of progress ! If there is anything that would justify borrowing at the present, time, it is borrowing for the purpose of purchasing land lor settlement and for reading and opening up waste land. How immensely every section of the community would benefit under a progressive and vigorous land settlement policy! Instead of this wc heave a policy of dawdling and of broken promises. On the eve of the last general election, as we showed recently, the Government promised to spend £250,000 a year for four years on roads to the back-blocks, and it has not kept its promise in any single year since. The mo'ney was available, but it was not spent. The discussion instituted by Mr. Oriiond will, we hope, do some good in attracting attention to this vitally important question, but a. new and progressive Government, with strong convictions on the subjcct of land settlement, must be placed in office before any real advance can be looked for.