STIMULATING SETTLEMENT

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6545, 29 February 1928, Page 10

STIMULATING SETTLEMENT

AVEST AI'STRAUAN EXAMPLE ' According to the latest reports from Western Australia there is evidently great activity in land settlement there. ) The official report of the State discloses the fact that during, the past two years over 12,000,000 acres have been taken up in small farms and grazing runs, while the Minister of Lands in announcing the preparation 01 itiOO blocks for new settlement, states, that ho is confident that if he advertised the opening of 0000 blocks this year he could have at least 10,000 applications from the eastern States. This being the case how is it that our own Minister of Lands takes such j a pessimistic view regarding settlement in New Zealand? asks the * Auckland “Herald.” Why Is it that New Zealand, which possesses many advantages over Western Australia for farming and farmers, is losing its rural population while the newest Australian State is gaining thousands of new farmers yearly? The only answers to these questions must be found in the difference of official methods. The Minuter of Lands for Western Australia is taking steps to attract new settlers. The Minister of Lands for New Zealand (by his pessimistic attitude and by his utter failure to provide new lands on attractive terms) is preventing new settlement. Grievances Magnified. There is, of course, some little excuse for Mr McLeod’s sad outlook. Ho came into office at a time when the Government Was trying to find some remedies for the various mistakes It had made during the period of repatriation and the chief of the remedies was the reduction in the price of the much over-valued lands sold or leased to returned soldiers. Once having begun to apply this remedy there was no stopping it. Men with legitimate grievances as well as men with little to complain of, saw they had only to grumble loudly enough and they would get reductions • in mortgages and rebates of rents, and, as was natural, there wore grumbles and complaints from all parts of the Dominion and from all. classes of settlers. There were. c£ course, many genuine cases of real hardship, but in trying to alleviate- these the way was opened to everyone who happened to be a Crown tenant or who owed money on Crown. laud. It would have required a man to be much more patient and much more hopefhl than Mr McLeod to escape the depressing influence of thousands of complaints which must have reached him regarding over-valuations of holdings and the impossibility of farming under the financial conditions which had been imposed on soldier settlers in the after-war period; but a more patient and more hopeful man would not have let these complaints colour his whole outlook on land questions. A r ast Empty Spaces. If Western Australia can a'-ract settlers by the thousands there is every reason to expect that New Zealand could do the same. The Chief attractions which Western Australia possess are the cheapness of its lands; the ease with which they may bo acquired, and the ready assistance and encouragement offered to new settlers. New Zealand could, if it liked, offer just the same attractions, or It might with advantage offer them in more substantial form. There are some millions of acres lying idle in the Dominion at the present time and it would only require a book-keeping alteration to offer this land at a price which .would suit applicants. Terms and regulations could bo adjusted so as to encourage settlement rather than repel it. and the Government, apart from finding land for its own people could by systematic advertis-, ing, attract people from countries overseas. Given reasonable access to land, the climatic, scenic .social and general advantages of the Dominion would outweigh the attractions of AVestern Aus ralla. There Is no country in tno world where fanning can be carried on more successfully or more pleasantly than in New Zealand. Its agricultural and pastoral industries arc already well established cd; its farm products have won a high reputation, and it possesses overseas markets capable of great expansion. The rural districts are becoming well roaded and well equipped with the conveniences of civilisation. In a little while cheap hydro-electric power will be available for nearly every settler and at the present time postal, telegraphic and telephonic conveniences are common even in the remote backblocks. Educational facilities, which cannot be surpassed by any country in the world. ,arc provided, so that it can only be the lack of settlement facilities which prevents the immigration of farmers from other countries and the successful establishment of an ever-increasing proportion of our native-born upon the land. Mr McLeod should take a lesson from Lis colleague In Western Australia and -io for New Zealand what is veins done so successfully in that country.