LAND SETTLEMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1247, 19 May 1914, Page 2

LAND SETTLEMENT.

DIFFICULTIES IN WAY.

Yesterday a deputation from the Wairarapa waited on the Prime Minister, in his capacity as Minister for Lands, urging the acquiring of two estates containing in all some 27,000 acres, for closer settlement.

In the course of his reply to the deputation the Prime Minister said “The Government has not acquired any estate compulsorily for the last seven years, the reason being that so many difficulties have been placed in the way that the law has been found to be almost unworkable. 1 have been looking into the matter recently, and that is the position. Whether Parliament will amend the law I am not able to say at the moment. I have a certain power under the Act of last year. I can’t go into details, but I am putting the Act of last year in motion in regard to certain properties in different parts of New Zealand. I am not prepared to state publicly what I am doing ; the time has not come ; it may not be necessary to make it public.”

He said he was prepared to forward the deputation’s representations to the Land Purchase Board, and set them going. He was going to get land for settlement wherever it was possible at a reasonable price. If the Board could get it at a fair price he was prepared to buy. On the other hand, the people concerned might say that they would subdivide the land.

A member of the deputation ; Among members of their families!

The Prime Minister: That is subdivision within the meaning of the Act.