LAND SETTLEMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1930, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

MR RANSOM’S PROPOSALS

(By Telegraph- Per Press Association.)

DAXXEYTRIvE, dune 11. Hon. Mr Ransom .(Minister of .ands) in the course of a pre-sesskmal address at Damievirke this evening, made further reference’ to the Government’s proposals in regard to land settlement, lie had enjoyed his - work as Minister of Public Works he said, but he recognised that in his new portfolio he had undertaken a position of the greatest importance to the progress of the Dominion! ’ One-of the principal difficulties confronting the Dominion was that of unemployment, and. in hi.s opinion, land settlement would prove to he the .greatest pos'lfle factor in providing, permanent employment in produHi.ve work. New Zealand "'as only part-ially developed. He hoped, as -Minister o,f Lands, tq be able to introduce- .into His Department such schemes qf land /development as would go a long way towards,-.meeting the surplus labour problem. The land legislation of last session provided the necessary machinery. ;Jt was the finest Land Act -so far’enacted: for the development- of our -so-called waste areas. Tie was convinced that- there were millions of acres of Crown lands which would ultimately he made available. for selection in 'small areas. A great, weakness of tlic. laud -legislation of the past was the -fact that it contained no provision foy. financial assistance to those taking up such areas. Advances were now available to any experienced man taking up such land, and in the near future lie hoped to have hundreds ol men engaged in development work. In •accordance witli its policy to create closer .settlement throughout the Dominion, said' Mr Ransom, the Government would continue to purchase suitable improved estates for subdivision but in his opinion much greater benefit .would accure to the Done--’ -i ’-e a vigorous policy of dove' the : di(i lands. In addition t- sysG ms Already in hand, ho p’-opos-ed to Giti-odncq something in the milur** of gr.-x- l settlement, whereby

bine'-- 4“ 'ml would lie surveyed into rensonal;!,. -sized sections, and applications would be called for experienced men to clear a portion of each section, construct roads, erect fences, and hutments, and to take up a subdivision " ben there was a reasonable prospect of a settler being able to carry on.

It was not proposed, he said to clear the whole of the land, hut to give the settler fair start to enable him to develop the remainder of his section by own labour. It was not merely a visionary scheme. Pfe had advocated it for vein's, and it had already berm put in practical operation by ihe Mon. Sir Apirana Ngata in connection with native settlement.

Deferring to the possibility of fm (•revised production, the Minister stated that the Dominion had only touched the fringe of its primary wealth. Denmark provided an example which New Zealand could well emulate. It was only the size of the South Island, and vet in 1G27 it has exported twenty - live millions sterling in primary produce. and twenty-four millions in the 'export of meat, principally pork and bacon. The compandive New Zealand exports wore seventeen million and nine million respectively. He looked for tremendous development in the dairying industry throughout the pumieious belt of the North Island, which had proved to lie responsive to' modern methods of pasture management, and in which, he believed, a great deal of additional settlement could he provided. '''be Minister made a tour of the coastal port ion of this electorate during the day, and received farmers’ deputations, lie red urns- In Wellingioii in the morning.