DESPERATE PLIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1927, Page 4

DESPERATE PLIGHT

WANGANUI RIVER SETTLERS. ALAXY AY A LTv OFF SECTIONS. A AA’ang.imii River 'settler told a ‘‘Chronicle’’ reporter that unless something was done suddenly, and on substantial lines, to help the settlers, then lew of them would survive on their places after the coining winter. Repeated promises lie vent on, had been made by the Government, btil nothing had yet materialised. Their only hope, of salvation lay in the fact that both the Prime Alinister and the Alin is to f of Agriculture were familiar with the difficulties facing the settlers. The Prime Alinister, who inspected the country in the vicinity of Retaruke and Al’.mgapurua, said the land Has undoubtedly worth saving. It should not he permitted to revert entirely to the primitive, and lie promised

that the. ease of the settlers should receive the attention of the Deteriorated Lands Commission DISQUIETING DEVEI.OPAIENTS. Facts concerning the depreciation of land in which a large ‘amount of capital has been sunk made disquieting reading.

The settlers complain that ‘their chief difficulties arise from the high capital value pi toed on the hind, with high rents as the inevitable corollary. Many of them have in recent years been quite unable to meet their obligations, and the rents have gone tinI |!tid. Realising their plight, the Crown Lands Department has not forced them. Remission of rents for periods of from live to fifteen years is now suggested as a solution of the problem ; ! otherwise, say the set tlers, they can not stay on their farms, i A lifetime of effort lias been sacrificed by many up-river settlers Ihr sections that are now reverting to fern and scrub. One man wont on to his place, I(l,'} miles up the river, twenty-two years ago. For the first, five years after the burning it carried five sheep to the acre; after that it 1 began to go hack, and the grazier’s 'life w!is a sustained conflict with fern and second growth. He hud no road twenty-two years ago, and lie has not one now, despite loads of promises. That he has succeeded in carving a homo from the wilderness is a reflection of his own energy and tenacity. But the cost of the 'labour' for maintaining the fences and keeping hack the scrub was multiplied, and lie cannot keep going. Before the war he had £IOOO in a hank at Wanganui. Now ho has nothing. CONVINCING FIGURES. Figures supplied to a “Chronicle” n£in show that the backbloeks farmer is, at the moment, on the wrong side in the economic scheme of tilings. The up-river grazier, whose cl in was auctioned, expected to get for his wool about the same rate as he received before flic war. Against that lie pointed out the following differences in operating costs:—

It now costs 48s to 50s per acre to cut bush, as apjninst 28s before the

Grass seed formerly cost lOd per lb. It now costs 2s 6d. Wool packs, which wore formerly 2s 9d, are now 6s 3d. Twine, once Is Gd, is now 3s 4d.

Shearing costs have risen from £1 per hundred sheep to 355. Fat wethers, now bringing 23s formerly sold for 42s and ewes now unsaleable at 13s, would fetch 26s when times were better.

“The unimproved value of upriver land,” mid the settler, “is from 50 to 75 per cent too'high. Some of the country should never have been opened up, and now the only hope of saving the land and the settlers is for the Government to remit some of their obligations,. and give them a chance to pull through.