SCOPE FOR SETTLEMENT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5228, 18 January 1928, Page 2

SCOPE FOR SETTLEMENT

ENGLAND V. NEW ZEALAND.

COMPLAINT AND REPLY. A short time ago "A Retired Civil Servant in- New Zealand” wrote to the Birmingham Post maintaining that a retired mail with an income of from £5OO to £lOOO a year, with a family, could do better in England thaji in New Zealand. The letter is answered by the Government Publicity Office, which says :—

“So far from there being no land in New Zealand for. settlement, it is the other way about. A great deal of privately owned land is on the market, and as the high prices of the deflated period have very largely disappeared, it is the opinion of responsible. farmers, in New Zealand that now is a good, time to purchase. The Hon. A. D. McLeod’s remark that there was ‘little land left for settlement’ obviously referred to Crown lands, and to Crown lands only. There is ample private land available, and to a shrewd purchaser at a-very reasonable figure.

“Y«ur correspondent’s statement that a retired man with an income of £5OO to £lOOO a year, with a family, can do better in England than in New Zealand, is so preposterously untrue that it is scarcely worth refutation. This office can exhibit a dozen letters received within the last year from retired Naval men and Englishmen from India, who ‘have settled, in New Zealand and are thoroughly satisfied with the change.

“As to the opportunities for British youths in New Zealand, the editor of a leading New Zealand newspaper recently wrote to me: ‘Quite-a number of the; English public school boys are well on their way to success as farmers in their own right. There is no question that there are. opportunities here for the energetic and diligent English boy.’

“With regard to the Flock Hduse scheme, 331 boys have now been successfully trained as farmers In New Zealand. Out of one party of 30 sent out some time ago 19, after training, started farming at £1 a week, two at 22s 6d per week, and the rest at 17s 6d per week, with hoard and lodging included.”