THE ORONGO PROBLEM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5116, 20 April 1927, Page 1

THE ORONGO PROBLEM.

DEALING WITH TALL FESCUE;

INVESTIGATION BY MINISTERS.

The spread of tall fescue at the Orongo soldier, settlement, and ie impossibility of eradicating it owing to the heavy nature of the soil w 11c i in the winter is too wet and in the summer too hard to wprk, wasinvestigated by the Hon. A. D. McLeod. Minister of Lands, together with the Hon. K. S. Williams, Minister of Public Works on 'Wednesday mornfng last. A close, inspection of several, of the farms was made, settlers pointing out the areas where different experiments had been made. During the inspection the Ministerof Lands admitted that he had no solution to the problem. The country was not for poor men. • The case for the settlers was stated by M r E. L. Walton, who traversed the history of the, settlement fiom tne firm ballot for the sections in 1920. He stated that these sections were priced at from £5B to £62 per acre and varied from 32 to 50 acres in size. The second ballot sections were priced at from £ll to £5B an acre, the areas being from 44 to oacres. The first ballot land was mostly rough feed and wornout pasture. Tlie second ballot land north of the pines was a sea of fescue; south of the pines fescue and rushes, with patches of rough feed. The description on the plan was English gi asses with scattered fescue. The second ballot men, said Mr Walton, were promised that the. land would be put down in grass. The department ploughed the sections with tractors, the work occupying four years from the ballot. The effect o this work had been to increase the quantity of fescue. Before one season had gone by the fescue had taken charge again, and had since kept the upper hand. The result had been that the settlers had suffered a mortality among their cows varying from 20 per cent, to 50 per cent., and in some cases over. In their opinion it "as impossible to farm the second ballot land, and five settlers had already abandoned their sections. Tlie attempts made to overcome the fescue included ploughing four or five times, picking up the fescue butts and sowing down in grass, only to find that the fescue came up again or the grass went out through flooding in thq winter and cracking up in the summer. Some had put the grass in with manure and top-dressed without any beneficial result. The department did not favour paspalum but recommended English grasses. Different recommendations by Government officials had been tried out without any benefit.

Mr Walton said that the settlers were now heavily in debt to the department and privately, their stock were diminishing, and this season would see most of them off. They asked to be put on fresh land and restarted, and that the Government should bear the cost.

Dealing with the position of the first ballot settlers Mr Walton said

that they were faced with the greater part of their expenditure while the boom prices were still ruling, but they commenced dairying when ti® slump had set in. The boom prices of their sections and the heavy load of interest made it impossible for them to pay their way. From the beginning they had to fight the fescue ■menace, which, with the flooding and want of proper drainage, had caused them to suffer a mortality in thair stock of from 10 to 33 per cent. in consequence they had been unable to pay the interest and rent, which had accumulated against them. About three years ago a revaluation was made, and the price, of the sections reduced 50 per cent., followed by a further reduction to prices ranging from £lB to £2O an acre. On the top of these prices there were the advances on current account of from £2O to £25 an acre, with arrears of rent and interest to be added. The request of the first ballot men was stated by Mr Walton as follows: “(1) Seeing that the sections are too small to permit a living to be taken off them, that the area allotted to each man be doubled, or, where possible, the minimum area of 75 acres be given to each man; (2) in such cases some of the men will need further financial help : (3) that the arrears of interest and rent be. written off; (4) that the land be revalued and reduced in value by 50 per cent., and that the current account advances be written off as to 50 per cent. By doing this the land and improvements would be brought down to their, present-day value, and both the Government and the settlers, who had Put in their own money would be sharing the loss.”

In reply to the. Minister Mr Walton staled that the council had already written off a large amount of rates and at present rates were owing by by the whole block. The council was prepared to follow the example of the Government in regard to the future.

Mr A. P. Dryden supplemented the remarks of Mr Walton, urging that the settlers be advised o f any practical proposition whatever for farming the area. He pointed out that if he. was offered his land free and given £5OO he would not take it on. The Minister said that he agreed with the last speaker. He did not think the area was a farming proposition. He, would aiot admit that nothing could be done with the land, but he would admit that unless a a farmer was wealthy he should never take it on. He would confess that the problem had him beaten, and that he was of opinion no wealthy man should take it on with an idea of getting a return on his money. The problem would have to be settled immediately. He knew the settlers desired removal, and this would be a reasonable solution if there was only the Orongo estate to deal with, but if the Government admitted the principle of having to shift the. men genuinely requiring removal, there would be no deciding where the matter would stop.

In the past the State had admitted as a matter of fairness, and not as a right that it should give men such as tlie Orongo settlers the opportunity of taking up any unoccupied Crown sections.

If the Orongo settlers found another section which they thought better the Government would assist them to take it up. The State, would not be responsible for these actions. The recommendation which had been made to him was that the settlers .at the southern end be given two years free of rent, and the settlers at the northern end be given three years free of rent. Personally he did not think this a solution. In regard to the writing off of the current accounts it was a matter of the departmental officers, _ and whatever recommendation they made he would adopt, and bear all the criticisms which may come, to the department for giving away the taxpayers’ money.

Tlie revaluation of the land was a matter for the Revaluation Board, which had more power, than he had and whose decision was final and binding.. The Land Boards had a duty to collect the. interest due on the valuation fixed by the Revaluation Board, and it could not alter the capital value but could only deal with the interest.

The matter of utilising the land for timber or flax growing was now being investigated by officers of the Government. He could not make any further statement beyond that he would go into the matter with the Revaluation and Land Boards with the idea of reaching finality. Mr A. P. Dryden expressed the opinion that further consideration by the revaluation and the Land Boards would delay the matter longer than the settlers could bear. The Minister said that he could not see any other course, than to get the boards to visit the settlement

Mr Dryden asked whether in the event oof a man abandoning his farm the State would write off his debts. The Minister stated that the. Audit Department would deal with each case on its merits, and where it found that a man had nothing the debt would be written off.

Mr Gi. Holden asked the position in regard to a transfer to the Kere.peehi block.

The Minister said that the Lands Department was of the opinion that the block could not be opened for settlement for at legist two years.

The Minister said he could not admit that the Orongo settlers had any more claim on the Government than the thousands of other soldier settlers who through no fault of their own had lost their farms and the large sums of money invested in them.