LAND SETTLEMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 700, 18 December 1909, Page 3

LAND SETTLEMENT.

QUESTION ASKED BY MR NEWMAN, M.P. Mr Newman, M.P. for Mauawatu, asked the Government whether they would authorise the Land Board of the Auckland District to submit the lauds subject to “The ; Hauraki Plains Act, 1908,” as under the optional system in Part 111. of the Land Act, when the same are available for settlement ? [Note. —Mr William C. Breakall, who has been the engineer in charge ot the draining of the Hauraki Plains (Piako Swamp), is reported to have stated that the operations had been wonderfully successful, and that by the end of the present financial year there should be 15,000 acres of the 90,000 acres in the block available for settlement. “It is beautiful land,” he said, “and will prove as rich a block as any there is in New Zealand, It is a rich alluvial soil that will cut up admirably into small dairy farms — a property that if taken up by a private company would yield a profit of a quarter of a million in four years.” Is the drained area being cut up now ?—“Yes. Mr J. B. Thompson and a party ot four surveyors are at present cutting up the land into areas ranging from 150 to 300 acres in extent, and this area (the 15,000 acres) has only taken two years to drain.” How is it to be disposed of ? —■ “Well, that is, to my mind, a very important question. Under the present Lands for Settlement Act these lands can only be disposed of by ballot, but I do not think the Government would be doing justice to itself if it disposed of these lands by ballot; the unearned increment is going to be too great for that. Take the case of the swamp I reclaimed at Northern Wairoa, now known as the Raupo Settlement ; any one could have bought that laud before it was drained for 7s 6d per acre. What happened ? It was sold for £2 1 os an acre, and some of the lessees had only paid a year's rent —2s 6d an acre —when they were able to sell out at from to £l2 an acre.”] Mr Newman received the following reply: The areas of land in the Hauraki Plains now being sub-divided for settlement, and which it is hoped to place on the market about the first week in May, will be handed over to the Auckland Land Board for disposal under the Land Act in accordance with the provisions of section 7, subsection (1) of “The Hauraki Plains Act, 1908.” The Board will then have power to deal with such areas as ordinary Crown

[ lands, as they are outside the | boundaries of the National Endowment area, and they will no doubt be opened under the optional system of the Land Act.