LAND SETTLEMENT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 131, 20 February 1918, Page 3

LAND SETTLEMENT

Sir,—l heartily congratulate your correspondent, Frank D. Morrnh, of Invercargill, on his able review on land settlement, which, appeared in your paper last week. Tho whole of tho future prosperity of New Zealand depends absolutely on tho manner in which land settlement will be handled. The appalling blunders of land administration in the past ought to be a sufficient warning to an intelligent Government as to what to avoid in the future. New Zealand possesses some of tho finest land in the world, both agricultural and pastoral, especially in the province of Hawko's Bay. .The history of the land transactions in the latter provinco conld never appear in print. No Government would lacesuch an exposure of chicanery and swindling as that attached to land settlement in Hawko's Bay. Owing to the gross ignorance and incompetence of tho members of the land .boards thirty vears ago the best lands m New Zealand passed into the hands of speculators, and were lost for the purpose of settlement for ever.—l am, otc, A.B.U.