LAND AGGRGEGATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2489, 5 October 1922, Page 2

LAND AGGRGEGATION.

MINISTER’S ANSWER TO CRITICS. Wellington, Last Night. The Minister for Lands, in a prepared statement, to the House answered the criticisms of Mr Mitchell and other members that the Government’s land policy had resulted in aggregation. He suggested that figures which had been used by the critics''were comparisons between agricultural and pastoral statistics and those appearing in the Lands Department’s annual returns as aurieultlii'iil and pastoral. The statistics counted as three, tlie three adjoining Crown leases held by one lessee. They were unreliable for comparative purposes as the land figures would return them as one holding. When the leases were renewed they appeared in one set. of figures as “selections.” His critics hud stated that although 8,924 crown selections had been mode during the period 1910-1921, the increase in the number of holdings amounted to only 4,530, thus showing a loss alleged to be due to aggregation of 4,394. .The Minister said that the selections during this period was 5,981, totalling 1,504,800 acres, but 755 were of less than one acre. The Government Statistician gives the number of new holdings during this period as 4,530, so the Minister argued that the sensational loss in holdings faded into insignificance. There was available for immediate selection 750 sections, totalling 460,000 acres. The Government had spent since 1921 nearly seven millions on the purchase of 400 properties.