LAND SETTLEMENT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 129, 29 February 1928, Page 12

LAND SETTLEMENT

“NO GENUINE DEMAND” PROBLEMS' TO BE FACED MINISTER ADVISES CAUTION Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February -28. “The ownership of land is not now fashionable,” said the Minister of Agricutlire (Hon. O. J. Hawken), when speaking on land settlement prospects at Karaka. There was now none of that scrambling for land which obtained a few years ago, said the Hinister, but that was bad lor the farmer, as it forced up the capital value of land. Whenever the demand for land diminished the farmer benefited. In regard to land improvement Mr. Hawken said there were secondary clay and fern lands in the Dominion which would be brought into production, as had been the case at Karaka, but money at 6 or 7 per cent, was a far different proposition from financing at to 5 per cent., and the present-day cost of breaking in land was very high. A great many people, including Mr. G. W. I'orbes in a recent speech, had broadly advocated further land settlement, “but,” said the Minister, “I find little or no genuine demand for land among the people today.” All along land had been available for settlement, and latterly on very reasonable terms. ■ So meagre had been the demand of late, however, that little of it had been taken up. T'ull advantage had not even been taken of the offer of land for nothing, conditional upon certain easy improvements being effected over a period of ten years. The fact had to be faced that most of the unbroken land left in New Zealand would cost as much to bring into production as it was worth. Those taking up such land must be prepared to live frugally for a number of rears if they were to win through, but only keen and resolute settlers determined to put it into shape had a chance. If such people were not coming forward in New Zealand, how could new arrivals from overseas, lacking local knowledge, be expected to succeed ? In advising caution, the Minister said: “The Government has been hard put to it to keep established settlers on the land. We have to wipe out the mistakes of twenty years ago.” He instanced a case where two decades ago the State bought from the Maoris .15,000 acres for £3 an acre. This figure had proved so much more than its value that recently it had been written down to 12s. 6d. an acre. In the meantime, the Department had become no longer a police force merely supervising the operation of regulations, but was out to aid the farmer to make the best use of his land. It was building up a competent staff of instructors, who were doing their part to raise the already high standard of farming in the Dominion. Championing the Rural Credits Act, Air. Hawken said the system of five year term loans which it replaced had done as much harm as anything else to the farmer, since he could not be expected to pay off a loan in such a short period, and because it involved him in heavy legal expenses from time to time, these amounting not infrequently to the amortisation percentage of the loan. Far better results were expected from the new system, which he deemed the world’s best method of financing the farmer.