LAND SETTLEMENT.

Otaki Mail, 5 April 1922, Page 4

LAND SETTLEMENT.

{AN UNSATISFACTORY POSITION. j | No private member of Parliament t ' is doing more useful spade-work at the I present time than is Mr George Mitchel. I the representative of Wellington South. The report on land settlement just issued by the Central Progress League < hears unmistakably the impress of Mr j Mitchell's hand and shows by eloquent , i facts and figures that, while New Zealand has been pluming itself upon what it has done in thi* respect for returned soldiers, it has been sadly neglecting the promotion of civilian settlement. The report points out that of a totai inciease of 4350 rural holdings since 19.10. to fewer than 3941 hnvj bt-SJi created by the subdivision of purchased estates P.nd Crown lands for soldier settlement, and that the net increase of ordinary settlement during the S\c » years foT the whole of the Dominici amounted to no more than 599 holdings. The ordinary settlement in the Auckland Land District in this period amounted to 1142 holdings, so that in si! the other districts put together there was a decline of 542 holdings. In th« Wellington district, where there ftr? several million acres crying aloud for eloser occupation, the loss, apart from soldier settlement, was 287 holdings. What Was Happening. r Referring specifically to the Wcllin*fion district, the report speculates as t» what has become of the missing holdings. "Take." it says, "a rich district like Wairarnpa South, which in 1916 had 480 holdings, reduced to 455 in 1920, and has only 439 to-day, in spite of the fact that numbers of soldiers have settled on subdivided estates within the county. Where have, these holdings gone?" Replying to its own, ; question, the report observe; that | "where the number of holdings de- ' creases and .'he average area of those remaining there can be only one answer and jrhen proceods to give particulars of what it regards as e [flagrant case of reaggregation. Its | words of commendation are reserved j for the Auckland province where, it | says, it is realised tbat "stagnation and , decay can be the only possible future for a province allowing the aggregator | and the squatter to rest undisturbed." Of course, as far as the Government is concerned, exactly the same conditions I prevail in Wellington as prevail in Auckland, but the extremely unsatisfactory results obtained in the southefa. provinces certainly call for sosie explanation from th* Lands Dep«tEi«r»t.