THE GLOVES OFF!

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 55, 29 November 1926, Page 8

THE GLOVES OFF!

LAND SETTLEMENT ISSUE MINISTER AND A NORTHERN NEWSPAPER CRITICISM REPLIED TO A battle between the Minister of Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod) and sections of the Dominion Press, over the land settlement question, has commenced. and, as far as one northern newspaper Is concerned, Mr. McLeod lias returned to the attack, minus the gloves. An editorial in the Auckland “Herald” described the Minister as “New Zealand's chief pessimist.” To this Mr. McLeod on Saturday replied as under:,— “The Press controversy in regard o land settlement has been carried to the point where it is necessary to get down to first principles. I have no reason to complain of the treatment meted out to me by’ the Press generally. As a public man lam quite prepared to accept fair criticism. My fight fs specially with the ‘New Zealand Herald,’ and those who have echoed its views. The policy of the ‘Herald’ is to throw open the large areas of unoccupied Crown lands in the Auckland province, while the policy of the Government is to consolidate, as far as possible, the position of the many hundreds of settlers who are battling again'st tremendous odds on similar lands and on swamp areas throughout the province mentioned. All the money which the Government has been able to borrow through the Advances to Settlers and other sources has been, and still is, being used for this purpose. In this policy the Government ha's the support of every practical farmer prepared to sign his name, while the policy of the ‘Herald’ is backed up by land agents and those who wish to unload on the general taxpayer of the country thousands upon thousands of acres of second and third-class lands, the owners of which are, apparently, not prepared to 'spend a shilling in the development of the land. I have before me a list of owners of over 100,000 acres of land similar to that under discussion, which has at different times been offered to the Government for purchase for close settlement purposes, and in that list appeals an area of 8000 acres offered in the name of persons who, I understand, arc closely associated with the ownership of the ‘New Zealand Herald.’ I had no intention of bringing the names of private persons into this controversy, but the ‘Herald’ has gone a little too far in its most recent attack upon me. “While retaining the position of Mini'ster of Lands for this Dominion, I will consider it my first duty to do what I can towards assisting the small settler, who to-day is having a hard struggle, and, at the same time, protect the public purse against those who are prepared to foist land upon the Crown at what, in my opinion, is three or four time's its present-day value.”