THE PLAINS SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4334, 26 October 1921, Page 3

THE PLAINS SOLDIER SETTLERS.

LAND VALUES TOO HIGH. PETITION FOR REDUCTION. FIFTY-ACRE FARMS ADVOCATED; (Special to the “Gazette.”) WELLINGTON. The Hon. Mr Guthrie (Minister of Lands) laid upon the table the annual report of the Department in reference to the Hauraki Plains. He moved, “That it be printed.” Mr H. Poland (Ohinemuri) wished t,o place before the Minister the desirability of having, a fairer and more reasonable valuation made of the lands that were being opened up . at the present time for settlement on the Hauraki Plains, and also to refer co the size of the areas into which t,he

sections were being divided. At about the beginning of December, 1919, there were placed upon the market for returned soldiers several sections' in various parts of the Plains. QWing to representations rhade to him (Mr Poland) he visited the sections ano had a look at them. He considered the sections were too large in the first place, and too highly valued in the second place, and he wired to the Minister to that effect. It was then too late, the Minister s,tated, for anything to be done, but the Minister told him that the sections had been carefully valued by the Lands Department, and. by an outside competent valuer as w.ell. Now he (Mr Poland) was s.till satisfied that those sections were far too highly vallued. They were higher than valuations that were made in March, 1915, of sections adjoining when they were opened to civilians. It was better land, as it was on the edge of the deep peat country. All the sections opened up in 1919 were in deep peat country, where .the peat was 20ft to 26ft deep t though it was a good class of peat. In 1915 the Department opened up areas of 201 acres at £6 an acre, and sections of 189, 186, 134, dnd 123 acres at prices ranging from £5 to £lO an acre. In 1919 for a section adjoining the 123 acres, of £5 value in 1915, and in deeper peat country, the Department opened a section at a price which ran to £2O an acre. Adjoining the section of 201 acres at £6, ! there were sections of 82 to 73 acres opened at £2O an acre in 1919. The ; sections were on opposite sides of the road: —oh one side the land was valued at £6 and on the other £2O an acre. Then, on the Mangowhero Road,, sections containing 165 and 176 acres had been opened up in 1919 at £l6, £l7, and £lB an acre, and this land adjoined land which in 1915 had been taken up at Ho an acre. On the Tramway Road land had been opened up in 1919 at £lB and’ £2O an acre which adjoinel better land taken up by civilians in 1915 at £5 an acre. He (Mr Poland) had gone over these sections about a couple of months ago in. connection with an application made by soldiers settled on them since 1919, .who were petitioning Parliament for reduction in the capital value of their sections. He did not wish to discuss the petition, which would come before the House in due course, but he was certain the values were far too high, and he did wish to ask the Minister to have a reasonable valuation of these sections. The high capital value fixed on these sections did not give the settlers, whoever they might be, a fair chance tc make a success of their holdings. If a settler had 189 acres valued at £2O an acre it meant that he had to pay rent on a value of £3780. He had to pay six months rent in advance, and he could not get any return from the land for two, three, or four years. The Right Hom Mr Massey: Is that all peat country ? Mr Poland said yes, there was 20ft to 26ft of. peat on it, and und.er the peat there was 20ft of mud and slime. The interest on £3780 was a very considerable sum!, especially if a settler was getting no return. He urged that a section containing 189 acres should be cut into three, and an area of 124' acres was large enough for two sectiers. These men were improving only perhaps 50 acres, but they hai to pay interest on the purchase price bf the whole section, and it was crippling them. It was partially drained, but very soft still. The values that had been put on were boom values. ,The Lands Department thought they were justified in getting all they cpul 1 for the land, but they had overdone it. He (Mr Poland) was aware that the Waitakaruru settlers were forwarding a petition to the same effect. The lands there had been overvalued l in the Same way. INTENSIVE SETTLEMENT.

Before the land was put, on the market it should be cut into sections of reasonable sizes. If the land had been cut into three times as many sections, it would settle three times asj many sdldicrs, and' would give more satisfactory results, both to the settlers and the country. Divisional drains would have to be put in, and possibly a road, but all this would assist drainage. None of these sections should exceed 75 acres in extent, and then every man would have a sufficient area, and could work it. He (Mr Poland) remembered when the best of the Hauraki Plains land was opened in 1910. The engineer cut it up into 200-acre sections.. He (Mr Poland) had objected that these were too large, and had brought up the matter in the House, the result being that the first-class land was divided into 100-iacre sections. It would have been better if they had been 50-acre sections.

One of the greatest mistakes made in the settlement of this land has been the large areas. Thos,e sections which in 1910 sold at £5 or £6' ah acre, had been re-sold within the last two years at £lOO an acre and over. Fifty acres of the, land were quite enough for one man, a poor man, who wished to become independent, and he should pay no rent for the first four years, but must reside qa and work section. The present state of things was only leading to trouble in the future. The lands would have to be cut up later on, and

it should be done now by the Government. He undertook to say that the greatest number of applications were for the smaillest sized sections on the Plains. He was satisfied that when the petition 'went before the Lands Committee and came back to the House, the Minister would have realised that these men were not getting a fair chance to make an independence fbr themselves oh those sections. They were all good men. He would not have backed them up if lie had not gone over .the sections and satisfied himself. He stayed a night with one of the settlers, and went over the twenty-four sections opened in 1919. He had also inspected some of them before they were opened, and had wired to the Minister, who replied to him as follows

"Referring to your telegram of -the 4th- inst. wherein you stated that there was considerable dissatisfaction amongst the soldier applicants for Hauraki Plains land at the high prices asked for In excess of the previous prices, and that several; of the areas were far too large; I have to inform you that your remarks apparently/apply to lands , offered on sale plan 1357, applications for which closed on the Bth instant. The valuations for these sections were fixed after careful- examination by the Crown Lands Ranger, and a representative of t,he Drainage branch, and were regarded by the Land Board as being exceedingly moderate .when compared with the values being asked by private owners for similar lands in the district, and it is now of course too late to take any action in the direction of reducing the capital values, even were i,t considered desirable and advisable t.o do so.;” He knew for a fact that any number of soldiers, after looking at the sections, did not apply, because they considered the prices were top high. No doubt a large number of applicants came forward, but some of them had not much knowledge of the value of land, and they naturally concluded that any sections offered by the Government were offered at prices which were moderate. Men in the South Island would apply for lands on the sale plan put the Government at the prices submitted by the Government because, as a. rule, i hey were prices 25 to 50 per cent, less than the private individual. worJd ask. That had been the case in most instances, but in 1919 it was not so. Land was put up and given to the soldiers at £2O an acre which adjoined land put up in 1915 at £5 an acre, and in areas that were far t,oo large. Hie hoped the Minister would go into the matter most carefully before further land was opened up.