LAND AGGREGATION

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1730, 22 April 1913, Page 6

LAND AGGREGATION

STATEMENT BY MR. MASSEY.

HERITAGE FROM THE WARD PARTY'S DAYS. DRASTIC BILL PROMISED. Statements that aggregation of land is proceeding apaco in t'lio liangitikei, Mangaweka, and neighbouring districts have been made recently in a number of Opposition newspapers. The Hon. AV. F. Massey, l'rinio Minister and Minister for Lands, last evening made tho following statement on tho subject:— .

"Tho report which has come to hand from the Lands Department shows:— "(1) That there has been aggregation to some extent.

"(2) That thero has been no aggregation as a result of the passing of tho Land Act of last year; "(3) That in the districts where aggregation was supposed to have taken placo, there have been no sucli cases since the present Government eahie into office.

"On the latter point the Commissioner says, speaking' of Mangaweka, 'As all tlio land near MangaweMi was alienated prior to 1900 thero is no power in the law to check the aggregation of it. Since I received your last communication I have examined evep- phase of aggregation in that locality, so that I tili'mlc you may rely on it that tho cases quoted nro the only ones of any importance.' Tho cases mentioned are where an area of i 123 acres is held by four members of a family, each ono owning a section: half of this is described as suitable-for dairy farming and the other half as sheep country.* L: -this ease the first section was purchased 1907, and the last in 1910. There is one other case where a settter hohls 1111 acres, part freehold and part leasehold. He acquired Jiis land in 1007. Thero is one other, but the Commissioner is uncertain whether there arc two occupiors or only one. The area concerned is 1732 acres, part freehold and part leasehold; this land was acquired in. 1912. An impression seems to have gotabout that nine people of tho same name in one locality were ail of the same tanvily, ami holding a forge area of land. On

inquiry, however, I liavo ascertained that tho people referred to belong to .four'different families, no uno of such families bci:ig related to the other.

No Departmental Laxity, "The Commissioner also calls attention to another locality, though in the Wellington land district, where two brothers hold 16,190 freehold, and 1175 ieasohold, Mi in this case tlie firm inferred to purchased only 696 acrcs from the Crown, and the Commissioner goes <m to say that nearly the whole of tivis fret-hold land was alieaated from tho Crown prior to 1659, some of it Ijeioc purchased in 1883, so that there can do no charge of maladministration against tho Lands Department. - • "Tho Crown Lands Ranger saw tho editor of the Mangawoka paper, which has been referred to as having discovered ,scra.«_ of these cases of aggregation,' and th-3 Banger states in liis report that tho .■diior mentioned several other cases, but lie (the editor) admitted that tho areas trieutioiicd were only sufficiently largo to make a comfortable living off, and that tho holders were residing and working the land in a boua-fido manner. Ho further stated' (according to the Hanger) that in tho JJangttwalca and Rakautonu Villago Settlements there is a tendency towards aggregation, but admitted that so far no oaa held too largo an area.

AT MANGAWEKA "It is interesting to go back to the article which led to tho report I hu.vo quoted from being asked for. Hero is one paragraph: 'All through this district there are agents out, their pockets lined with gold in. order to tempt tho small farmer to take advantage of tho Reform Government's legislation to convert his leasehold into freehold, and to hand it over to the man, possessed of capital.' On this point the Commissioner says that 'only about 10 acres in the vicinity of Mangawcka have ets yet been converted into freehold under the Land Act of 1912/ and in another place he says: 'I attach a schedule Showing the holdings which have been converted to date from the Ll.]?, to freehold under tho Act of last session, /from which it will be observed that there is no foundation at present to tho allegations made in the articles published in the 'Mangaweka Settler.'"

'Ihese,' said the Primo Minister, "are tho principal facts, and they speak for themselves."

"It has to be remembered," he continued, "that in many oase3 settlers were placed on sections of poor land from whic'h it w<ts impossible to make a living, and as time went on such men were cither allowed to increase the area of their holdings by talcing in'other Crown lands, oi as soon as tho conditions of the Land Act permitted, many of them sold out to the others,, who were satisfied to remain. This is, of course, a form of aggregation, but it is one that is inevitable under such circumstances

The Next Land Bill. "As to the general question, I have already said that the Government is against either of Crown lands, pri-vately-owned lands, or Native lands. So far as Crown land! is concorned, tho provisions of tho Act of last'session seem to have been, effective, though in some places a diffioulty with regard to financing has cropped up, and which will liavo to be met; but I intend in the next Land Bill to ask Parliament to agree to proposals which I believe will make reaggregation exceedingly difficult, if not impossible."