OPENING UP NEW LANDS.

Putaruru Press, 19 January 1928, Page 5

OPENING UP NEW LANDS.

GOVERNMENT S POLICY DISCUSSED

NEW OUTLOOK WANTED ON DEEP AND WIDE PROBLEM.

Biggsr Returns on Existing Factories Essential

Recently the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, announced in Auckland that the Government intended to promote settlement by investigating the possibilities of the vast areas of pumice and gum lands in the N orth Island with a view to bringing large blocks into productivity. Coupled with this proposal is a statesmanlike effort to solve the unemployment problem bv -utilising such labour in the healthy work of enlarging the scope of New Zealand’s basic industry. .In a series of articles the possibilities of the proposed scheme, which may be more far-reaching than appears on the surface, are discussed in detail.

Nine put of every ten people re- . ; gard work done by the Government with suspicion insofar as the finanr vcial aspect is concerned. This suspicion is generally justified for on most Government undertakings money is of little account. In the main it is • only seriously considered roundabout the end of the financial year, when the particulars of the Financial Statement are being made up. Then it is regarded chiefly from a parochial or party aspect, though latterly Mr. Coates, as witness his railway works ; policy, has tried to infuse business methods in regard to its allocation, j When it comes to spending, however, there is little business oversight, solely because those responsible have had no business training, and their •is no incentive to obtain value for ;imoney spent. Neither have public . servants been encouraged to show

business acumen, ahd those who do ] /possess inherent ability in this direc- < tion have to leave the Public Service j because they do not receive anything like the salaries they can command . outside. With such an atmosphere it is perhaps too ifiuch to expect that j The new policy of opening up for settlement lands now lying idle will be . -carried out with keen business instinct, so that the settlers will benefit and have a chance to improve the ; country’s production in the first few i .years. Broken Pioneers. *- In the past the custom has been, f .and often quite needlessly, to cut up I a block and settle it in some iso- -- lated and out of the way place, sans v reads, sans railway, sans water, and i sans any other kind of communica- i tion whatever. The result has been t .a heart-breaking experience for the t ; settlers, many of whom, even long o before the war, have had to walk off o their properties after years of effort, ruined both in body and pocket. Those more fortunate, who managed to struggle on, took years and years to bring their holdings to a state of g profit, simply because of the stupid and unbusinesslike policy adopted in kthe past, of considering the job well land truly done when a block was cut up and ballotted for. Such procedure i may have read well on paper, more especially when, the ballots were ( rushed, but it is an unenomical way 1 of doing things. . Autres Temps, Autres Moeurs. The Hon. Mr. McLeod quite often sighs for a return of the old pioneer .spirit—he may sigh and keep on sighing in vain. Other times other .manners, and though we beiieve the old spirit is there, it is in another form. This is simply the result of environment. In the old days when the country was young, in regard to settlement by the pakeha, there were no large towns with their glittering distractions, and there was little offering but the fertile virgin, lands with their accompanying mineral deposits. But even in those days man\ gave up the struggle with, nature as iT hopeless. To-day the . outlook is largely different, and with the rapid of education more construc*ve and business-like methods of handling land settlement are not only looked for but demanded. The burden carried by farmers is so great To-day that there is little inducement for anyone to bury themselves in the I hackblocks in the hope of making the j business of farming pay* struggle to make ends meet is so keen and, precarious that few care to take the risk avith the result that instead of settlement being on 'the increase, thousands have walked - off • their properties during the past few years. No country i* the world is so favoured w from a climatic point of view for -farming operations as New Zealand, and if the country is to continue to be 3

prosperous it is essential that every acre possible be brought under cultivation.

Curse of Idle Lands.

Some people believe that New Zea-i land is well settled. In reality, from a farming- point of view, it has barely oeen scratched. There are millions of aores of Crown lands lying idle, much of which is a curse to the country on account of noxious weeds. The same comment applies to native lanes, while the opinion of a wellknown Waikato land-valuer that the biggest curse of the average farmer to-day is that he is holding too much land is supported ly many shrewd observers.

It is clear, then, that new methods are necessary, and to obtain these one must first of ail have a new outlook. To date there lias been little or no co-operation between Government departments, and a glance at their present policies will show their methods to be out of date and wasteful. To make the railways pay freights and. fares are raised, and every now and then to quieten public indignation figures are juggled with to prove that on some basis or other the rates charged are no higher than those in Kamchatka or some other place. Sales were never duplicated

’■- the ordinary course of business by raising prices, and if the railways pay, instead of raising freights appertaining to the industry of farming should he kept at bedrock, for the more manures and fencing material that .is freighted the more will the products of the lancTincrea.se in turfi. Some other means of showing a profit must be looked for if the intolerable burden of taxation is to be greatly reduced, and one means of doing this is by the co-operation of the Lands Department. Every Acre a “ Customer.” Every acre of land lying idle alongside or within reach of a railway 7 should be regarded as a potential sourep of income by the Railway Department. If this policy had been followed there would have been a totally different story to tell in the Railway Statement to-day 7. Take almost any section of the 3164 miles of railway track operating, with the exception of those sections near large towns, and within a radius of twenty miles on either side will be found ihousands upon thousands of acres of land which is either lying idle or not producing to anything like its full capacity. Were business methods followed a land survey would be made and each block noted Then the combined strength of Railway, Land, Public Works and Treasury Departments would be focussed on the problem of roading, settling and bringing such lands up to full producing capacity before a mile of new noninterest bearing track was laid. It may be held that such a suggestion is but a visionary one, and would result in further areas further back being hindered in getting railroad communication. In reality it is no dream; it is but the application of sane business horse-sense, and if followed the increase in traffic on the present laid lines would result in such profits that extensions could be made at a quicker rate than is now possible. I . Straggling Railways.

It is the present wasteful system of. straggling lines all over the country side with no accompanying effort to .secure ye settlement that cripples n6t only the. railways but the'ciJuntry as well. The first point that should be borne in mind therefore under the .new policy of opening up lands for settlement as announced by the Minister for Lands, is to see that before blocks are taken over which are miles from any railway,

that all suitable areas within easy reach of the present lines are if possible closely settled. As stated, the job is outside the scope of any one particular Government Department, for though it mainly concerns the Lands Department, the Railway Department should be vitally interested, and the co-operation of both should tend to this end. Settlement of huge blocks far from means of communication is all very well, but these should be years of retrenchment and consolidation of interests, and every endeavour should first of all be made to settle those areas necessitating as little expense as possible in forming new lines of communication. Such a policy would result in immediate increased returns to Railway Department and to local bodies, as well as offering far better prospects to the settler. The reverse means the old policy of isolation and stagnation, with the plaintiff and almost irrestible cry for more roads and railways.