UNOCCUPIED CROWN LANDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3556, 30 October 1926, Page 2

UNOCCUPIED CROWN LANDS.

A MINISTERIAL OFFER

Wellington, Last Night,

In Auckland recently, the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister for Lands, referred to the settlement of unoccupied Crown lands, and made a statement to the'effect ha lie would be prepared to hand over to any Association, at bai’e survey costs, an area of from 10,000 to 15,000 acres of gum or pumice lands, and that, provided it subdivided the land successfully into small farms, he would be prepared to recommend Cabinet to provide a subsidy of £25 per cent. When asked to-day whether, he had anything to add to this statement, the Minister said that the offer still held good, and that if any reputable set of men came forward he would ask Parliament 1 6 pass the necessary legislation to make .the conditions binding on all parties. He fully recognised the responsibility attached to such an offer, but he never made offers without first making himself conversant with all the facts of the ease. “In certain political circles an effort is being made to lay at the door of the Party with which I am associated, all the ills which have fallen upon the man on the land during recent years. This may be fair Party politics, but if one wished to retaliate in kind, it would not be hard to show that the great majority of those on deteriorated lands now applying for reductions of rent and financial assistance, were settled upon their holdings by Governments in power prior to 1912, and left in all too many cases without roads or bridges of any kind. Furthermore, the large percentages are original settlers, who did not take land up at the inflated prices ruling during the, war period.” After dealing fully with the question of unoccupied Crown lands and lands under cultivation, Mr McLeod said: “Let me say that after moving about the country as I do, I am much more concerned about the condition of much of our occupied land than I am about the unoccupied lands. The enormous increase of costs as compared with the remarkably small increase in net overseas v-nlues of our primary products ,is undoubtedly forcing much land out of profitable occupation, and this is a much .more serious Dominion problem than the bringing in of .relatively few remaining acres of unoccupied Crown lands.”