LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1652, 20 January 1913, Page 6

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

; ME. MASSEY ON THE YEAR'S RECORD, i '. (By Telograph,—Press Association.) • _ / Auckland, January 19. 'Tho operations of tho Government in tno opening of lands for settlement'wore tho subject of special roferenco by tho Prime Minister at the banquet tendered to him at Thames on Friday. Mr. Massey said that his attention lwd been dratai to a criticism published in an Oppositioft newspaper regarding tho ..Government's land policy. He had forthwith asked for a return, which ho had received from the Under-Secretary for Crown Lands.' These official figures: showed that within tho present quftrtor, ending March 31, tho Government proposed to open up for settlement within tlio Dominion 285 sections, containing 55,139 acres. . In addition to that, there were to bo opened up in tho same period, 35 pastoral runs, aggregating 233,846 acres. ». V These figures did not include,the 10,000 nerds, 4000 acres of which was in, tho Bickorstaffe Estate, that tho Government now jn tended to open for settlement in -' tho North of Auckland as tho result of hiß recent tour of'that district. All thesfl lands would bo dpencd up before March 31, and the: Government was already at work upon 75,000 acres of other land to bo opened up later on, and also to be placed at the option of t'ho settlers before tho end of the present finanoial year. During tho present financial year, Mr. Massey added, the Government had, up to the present, purchased J2W0.000 worth of land for . settlement purposes. It' intended to continue this policy, and by following .tho policy initiated last year hoped to bo able to provide stilt more money for the purchase of land as tho necessities of settlement required, , i