DETERIORATED LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 10

DETERIORATED LAND

INQUIRY Itr!'GED

ABANDONMENT OF FARMS

A decision to ask the Government to appoint a commission to make an immediate investigation of deteriorated lands with a view to national action was reached by the Stratford executive of the Farmers' Union after consideration of the serious position in the back country of Taranaki, states a New Plymouth correspondent.

A remit was passed which asked that the Government set up a commission to take evidence and bring down a report on deteriorated lands and abandoned farms with a view to the promotion of land settlement and increased production and to make available land for young farmers who had proved their capabilities. The commission should comprise practical men.

Mr. H. A. Hunt said he felt that the matter had been allowed to drift by both the previous and the present Governments until it threatened the welfare of New Zealand. In the last seven years over 1,000,000 acres of land previously occupied had gone out of production and this was continuing at the rate of 100,000 acres yearly. Good houses were being pulled down and outbuildings were being allowed to rot. Qood farmers on adjoining land were being ruined and forced to abandon their farms by the spread of noxious weeds and excessive rates.

During the last five years he had prepared budgets for many farmers from Stratford to Taumarunui and he spoke with inside knowledge. Althoughit meant large expenditure the position must be tackled. It could not be done by private enterprise alono. New Zealand must look to the future, for the land was there for all time and although it might show a loss for some time it would eventually prove an asset. The loss of this back country must eventually affect the better-class land.