NEW ZEALAND LAND POLICY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND LAND POLICY.

A STRONG INDICTMENT/ (From Oub Own Corresbokdekt*) ' AUCKLAND, August 28. Under tihe .heading, " Paying thefTPfnalty," the Herald this morning make^ a vigorous attack on. the Government on its laad and immigration policy. It^'B^ys : '.' New Zealand; continues to pay the , penalty of a land poKey" which is as rai<|ui._tau&_as. it ia astounding. With n^toas of acres locked" agakwt settlement in Hhe huge Crown and Native estates, and- with even the costly Main Trunk line passing for 100 miles through waste and- idle land, the Government' 16.0ks indifferently on, while every Australia-bound steamer carries away the bone sinew which would be promptly employed were our industries allowed to develop upon tno sound basis of land settlement. The first six months of the year toletfits unanswerable tale on a marked ffxtese . of emigration over immigration, in^ipite j of crowded shiploads from the United . Kingdom.. Jury, ihe opening mo'nt&'of i the- next .ha3Lf T y early period, coiftinires | the crushing indictment of our domestic Government. The official figures issued by the Registrar-general of the Dominion show an excess of arrivals in July, .1908, 677; excess of departures in July, 1909, 606., Comment should be needless. " The difference against the Do-, minion for the past month, as compared with the previous July, is almost 1300 persons, which is a very moderate estimate of the great loss being sustained by our population, for the stifling effect of the administrative land policy upon the prosperity and expansion of New Zealand' lias been gradually beepming evident for years. The disastrous effect is of extraordinary magnitude. - It is absolutely certain that we shall close the year -with a population at least 20,000 smaller than it would have been' had even a mild encouragement been given to land settlement, for w.hen thousands of hardy and industrious colonists are exiled from them homes by pernicious government, it is manifest tEat 'thotis-" ands of the most desirable class of would-be immigrants are deterred from joining us. This population 15Ss" represent* an .annual- revenue loss of not .less than £120,000, while the interest itharge" at 4 per cent, on a Dreadnought cost - of £1,750,000' ik u <mly*. : £7o;oo0 t "And this is only. qae .phase of the . situation . which has been created, by wiiful maladministration.- * Behirrd-ithis steady sfcrew&i 1 - of New Zealand emigration is the dissatisfaction of sturdy agriculturists, wearied of waiting for ballots, and heart-sick with looking over ' taihoa ' fences at the rich '" wilderness wherefroiu they 'had hoped to carve out a holding and a home, and the dissatisfaction of capable workmen, wearied -of looking for work in towns and cities- whose prosperity has been stunned and whose expansion had been checked by the embargo laid upon agricultural development. If we look to see where these men have gone, we find them in every Australian. I State, and even farther afield, everywhere making the name of the New Zealander synonymous with industry, capacity, and reliability. For they are, mostly, among the best, being the men who, like their fathers before them, would hot wait for opportunity to come to them, but went where opportunity was to be found. We can see where many of our emigrants are going and staying by comparing the New jgouth Wales official returns with bur own. In the quarter ending June 30 last the excess of arrivals in New ,South Wales was 5259; New Zealand showed an excess of deI partures of 3517. In New South Wales, as in Queensland, Victoria, and' other States,-the. various Governments are majji ing strenuous efforts feo ' place . «uitft"ble j land .at the uisposal of wonld-be. settlers, and 'numerous Australian industries are already feenng the beneficial influence of a wiser land policy than prevailed in past years. Only New Zealand sits paralysed and bewildered among the sparsely populated dominions of the Empire, gazing at her emigrating sons, wondering at her fallen revenues."