N.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE AND LAND SETTLEMENT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 235, 30 June 1919, Page 6

N.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE AND LAND SETTLEMENT

. Sir,—ln the platform of the New Zealand Welfare League, as outlined in your issue of Friday last, there appears to be ouo important plank missing. '-This is the need for a vigorous policy \ri the matter of opening up and settling the unoccupied lands of the Dominion. If this were carried out on generous lines as far as returned soldiers are concerned, and moderate lines as regards civilian settlers, it would go far to prick that landbubble /triiieh has unfortunately been allowed to become so inflated during the last few years, and which is undoubtedly one of the causes of the high cost of living, ' , The policv" of the Government, now f.nd ill the - past, is, and has been, intensive land settlement, that is the subdivision of already productive land, instead of extensive settlement of idle and waste lands, whereby al<me that greatly increased production can be looked for which is needed to meet our enormously increased liabilities due to the war. if such a policy of extensive settlement were carried out in conjunction with an energetic development of roads and railways, this latter would help prospective settlers of unimproved lands, not onlv to provide access to their but to tide over the time until their holdings began to bring in a return.—l am, etc " R.D.F.