LAND SETTLEMENT.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 274, 7 February 1929, Page 4

LAND SETTLEMENT.

For some years the land settlement policy of the late Government paused before the problem of whether undeveloped land pays to break in, and whether dairying land pays to buy, at current prices, for settlement. Ih contrast with this “ dead slow ahead ” policy the new Government now sounds a forward note in settlement; and, as by a magic touch from the new political fairy up above, the permanent officials lower down are converted from a modified pessimism to a restrained optimism.In the'course of some non-committal statements, the new Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, confirms the forward movement, but gives little or no clue to methods or ways or means. Is an advance to be made mainly along the lines of breaking in undeveloped land, or of buying proved land for higher development? Under the first head, thought flies to pumice, to the prison labour tests, and to the late Minister’s dread of farming costs. Under the second head, the acre block of dairying land comes to mind, and the late Government’s reluctance to provide estate-breaking machinery suitable for splitting such five-hundred acre holdings into fiftyacre dairy farms. Another question arising is whether the Government is building mainly on cow and sheep products, the market for which is more or less assured at home and overseas, or whether the small settlement contemplated would rely largely on the products of poultry-yard, bee hive and orchard, for which the marketing factor is much more uncertain. An exportable surplus is one thing when it consists of butter, but quite another thing when it consists of eggs, guaranteed fruit, etc. Australia’s heavy payments for exports of fruit and sugar prove clearly that settlement schemes must be looked at frSm the selling as well as the producing end. Wellington Evening Post.