LAND PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 201, 20 May 1919, Page 6

LAND PROBLEMS

JHE SOLDiER SETTLERS

USING THE WASTE SPACES

NEED OF ROADS

SPEECH BY THE MINISTER,

The land problems facing the Administration to-day were referred to in a comprehensive review made by the Minister of Lands (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie) when he opened a conference of Commissioners of Crown 1.-nnds which sat in 'Wellington recently. The Minister , convened tho conference in. order to discuss with the Commissioners problems 'of administration, and his speech in iutroducing th& business gave a' good judication of the work which came before the conference. "The difficulties that are to bo met with at any time in regard to the lard administration of a country of quick development 6uch as New Zealand," snirt Mr. Guthrie, "necessarily reqmr? a great deal of time and thought on tho part oJ ovoryons conodrned; but if. is especially tho case at tho .present time, as we aro faced 1 with difficulties that the land boards in the past did not have to contend with. The Soldiers. "The war has brought in a new system of land settlement, which is particularly difficult because of the men we. are dealing with and becaiiso of the criticism of the people outside. For the peonle are watching every action of the Department, l>ecause it is exceedingly important that we should settle the returned. soldiers who desire to become farmers by tho best possible means. You all know we are dealing with a class of settler such as we have not had to deal with in tho past, but experience naturally teaches us, and wo are therefore now more fitted to deal satisfactorily witli the problem. "I would liko to tell yon what is in my mind, in regard to some, of our administration- problems, so that we may understand each other. You will then know the Minister's attitude in regard to them, and as a result of the-discus-sions of the conference, he will know what is the opinion of tho Commissioners of Crpwn Lands. I will therefore refer to what I consider are kime of the great and pressing questions with which we arc faced; and if thero are difficulties attached to some of thorn, we. have just pot to get over those c'liffionlties as best we can. I have, alluded to the difficulties of administration, which, as I have said, aro such as will call for the exercise of tho greatest cure and determination on the part of all concerned in settling our returned soldiers without finannial loss and witli benefit to the State. These aro some aspects of the question we should keep in view. In the past'we have been criticised because '«ve aro not doing enough for the soldiers, because we are considered to bo too austere and hard in dealing with them; because there are delays in transacting their business, and because we nre not doing as much for them as some people would liko to soc us do.

Tlic Time Factor. "None of us can deny Hint theve havo been delays, but some of those delays have not been unnecessary. They linve beer, brought' about very often by (lie .negotiations, in the interest of the returned soldier, being necessarily protracted. Time is nn element in these transactions. JJeforo the applications no before tlio land boards valuations and reports havo to bo obtained, and in some cases the hoard requires a further valuation a recommendation to tSV Minister. Applications under section II 'it' the Act have in addition to the foregoing, to bo submitted to the Land Purchase Board, and to Cabinet, so that delays must occur. What we want to do is !o eliminate thc«e delays as much as possible. It was thought at first that we would require three months to deal with applications for land, and in my opinion three months a reasonable time, but as very few vendors will tie up their land, for that length of time, especially at certain seasons of the year, ive must tryto do with less than three months. Staff Difficulties, "An important consideration in theso matters is that of stuff. I know perfectly well that your staffs havo been depleted, and for that reason I havo often refrained from asking for returns and reports. 1 want you to say definitely, from your experience and .knowledge of the requirements of your offices, whether they are sufficiently staffed or not, and. ii not, 1 do not think you will find the head oliice or myself unsympathetic with any request you may make. Land Purchase Board, "In looking through the remits, I have been struck by the lact tmu tliere 'are no suggestions with regard to tile Land Purchase Board. \\'u havo placed on that board duties that it was never contemplated would fall to its lot. Before soiilier settlements became a,necessity, it was considered quite "satisfactory if" the board successfully negotiated lor three or four properties {luring the year. But now it was expected to inspect and purchase as many per week. This brings up a difficulty which at the moment I see no means of overcoming, and that is the fact that the chairman of the board has to associate himself directly in tho inspection of practically every proposed purchase in the Dominion. I iuhy-ex-pected that you, recognising this disadvantage, would make some suggestions for the consideration of conference in the direction of strengthening and popularising our land purchase beards. You aro nil aware 'that right throughout New Zealand there is a demand for tlie employment of more-local opinion and local judgment in connection with our purchases than is possible with the Land Purchase Board as at present constituted, and I shall be glad to have an expression of - opinion from conference 011 the important mutter. 1 hold very strong views in connection with it 'myself, and consider that it is almost an' impossibility for Ihe. Land Purchase Board, as at present constituted, to deal systematically and expeditiously with all the offers from North Cape to Bluff. Perhaps my reference to I lie matter may open up a discussion on it that will ie a !l to a solution of the difficulty,

High Country. "There is another body very closely allied with the Lnml Purchase Board', and that is our Clastiliciiuon Comniistsioners—especially tlic.su who deal witif high lands. There is a feeling abroad, and we cannot igiiore .it. that although we have commissioners of absolute integrity, who. are supposed to know something about high country, ami who are excellent men in practically every respect, they have not a sufficiently, close knowledge of high country work, Some of j-ou gentlemen who are closely acquainted with the administration of liigli country may wonder what llie Minister knows about it. 1 know nothing, except from using my <>yes awl noting- what nan been done, and forming my own opinion. I have no personal experience of high country land, mid therefore uo practical knowledge of it. If men with practical knowledgo of the work were appointed as commissioners,'confidence would be instilled in those interested in liiis class of land ami its administration, and wc would do away with this carping criticism that is constantly being levelled at us. , Jhe Great Task. "Having said so much on these smaller matters, ' would like to refer.- tn what 1 SCO is ahead of us. No matter who 'is your Minister, the aim of all should be to view our land problems as 1 tlicy affect the development and welfare of New Zealand. The land administration has had put upuiHt' a responsibility of such magnitude as it has never betore had: the responsibility 0/ increasing the production of our country in order to meet (lie extremely heavy inir taxation placed upon it. It is only by increasing „ Ml . production that wo shall be able to maintain our position, and meet our obligations; and to do that I see many great problems ahead of 11s. One is (I am almost ashamed to refer to it because of tho way it is being continually thrown,

up at us) settlement, more settlement, and still tuoro settlement. Much has been done, but still more has to be done. It is our duty to deal with this question, and it luis to be done in a way that has never been forced on any Administration before. We must persevere ifi our endeavours to promote the closer settlement of our lands on sound, sensible, and practical lines. Wo have to deal with all classes of land, and with problems we have not known in the past, because ■they were npl with us. Take, for instance, our light lands. The Idle Lands, "In the development of the country, naturally the best lands were settled first, with the result that to-day we find ourselves in the position of having practically all the good lands of the country in occupation, while tho poorer lands are still unproductive. There is no country in tlie world that can afford to allow millions of acres of land to lie idle if there .is a possibility of doing anything with it. We have millions of acres of pumice lhiids, millions of acres of gum lands, besides the dry lands of Central Otago. The question Of bringing these so-called waste lauds into use is iorced upon us to-day. Take the sivump areas. A short time ago prac-'" tically all of them were lying absolutely unproductive, while to-day, particularly in tho interior of the Auckland Province, they have been brought in and represent some of tho most productive land of the Dominion. Wherever we have rich swamp lauds we are not justified in. allowing them to lie idle. I vi.jitsd the ICaitaia swamp recently, and wonderful results were to be seen. That land was worth £8 or £9 an acre a little while ago,, but I do not know what money would 'buy it to-day.. You gentlemen have done your part in bringing about these drainage schemes, and as they have proved beyond doubt to be good propositions, I trust you will follow up the policy and not allow any block of rich swamp land in your districts ,to lie neglected for any length of time! The Pumice Areas. "So far as tho possibilities of" tho pumico lauds are concerned, much lias been said and written. But I inspected them as comprehensively as I possibly could, and from what I'saw I am absolutely confident that with the expenditure of a reasonable amount pgr acre, there is an assured future for them. It was evident to me that these pumice lands would give a return for any justifiiablo amount' sensibly expcinded on them. With the commissioner I visited Mr. llollitt's land, and Mr. Hugh Campbell's more recently-developed pumice land;\and while they will never ho rich, fertile land, and fatten -well (they are lands that wi|l always have to be farmed), I am convinced that they will Pay. 1 In the North, "Then there are the gum lands. Some of .you have! no' doubt had no experience of gum lands, but those of you who have had an intimate acquaintance with them and are thus capable of expressing an opinion regarding them, will, I feel perfectly sure, agree with me os to their luture. If you have seen what can be done 011 the poor gum lands by, say, Mr. Knight, of Albany, you will be assured that with work, perseverance, and pluck those lands can be brought in. Neither pumico lands nor gum lands, however, are to my mind lands wo could .expect poor men to select, unless we help them both with advi& arid money. If we can bring in these lands we will solve to a very large extent tho problem of extra taxation by tho resultant increased production.

The Great Aims. "The great questions before us, then, are (1) C'lbse settlement;

tfj Dealing with tho dry lands of the country by irrigation or by other means; (3) Dealing with the swamp lands; and (I emphasise it very strongly, as I think it one of the most important features of the land.question to-day);

(4) Dealing with pumice nnd gum lands. "I do not say there is going to be a great future for these last-named classes of land, but there .will be a satisfactory future.' A good deal has been said about high'country,-and nil 1 .1 will say is that it is my earnest desire, if possible, to have something done that will help us to administer these high lands with a degree of satisfaction to all concerned.

"There is one other question that I must refer to, and that is reading. This in H o i>iS to be of vast importance in the future. In the past I think we have made a mistake in not providing roads wlier? they should have boon provided. Homo of Ihe best settlements I know aro 'Settlements that have been roadedlieforo the settlers went 011 to the land. In those cases the settlers never looked back from the time they commenced operations. Jf the.v had gone in without having roads, I do not know that they would have been any better to-day than the surrounding settlements. Without roads (and we should remember this) production does not go on as it should, and the settlers become disheartened. I ,would therefore like you to take this Ijuestiou into serious consideration. We havo determined, with respect to tho settlement of returned soldiers, that wherever possible we will road the laud, before they take up their sections, i know that in the past our hands have • been forced in connection with tho matter, and I know they will bo in the futuVe, as the men insist ou getting on to tho land without delay. 'I ho. difficulty will really be accentuated in'tho near future, as the men are coining back from the war so rapidly that we. shall not be able to road all the land. However, that is tho policy we ought to adopt, wherever practicable. "There is also another i>olicy we ought to adopt in connection with'baclc settlements, and that is tho provision, of telephonic communication. That has been recognised by Cabinet already. You will bo ciuite justified in ascertaining from' the Post and Telegraph Department what tjie extra cost will Demand loading it 011 to tho land.' It would give treat satisfaction to the settlers, I know, and would bo very advantageous to them. We shall not havo to bear the whole of the cost, as the Post and Telegraph Department will attend to the erection of the lines and tho installation of the tele--phones. I have authorised it in one case, and think it will be very beneficial Meed."