THE PUTARURU PRESS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1929. THE NEW LAND POLICY.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 277, 28 February 1929, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1929. THE NEW LAND POLICY.

'Phone 28 - - - P.O. Box 44 Office - Oxford Place

THE statement made by the Hon. E. A. Ransom at Rotorua, this week, should make very pleasant reading to members of the Putaruru Chamber of Commerce, and those, bodies which have supported the Chamber during the past year, in its efforts to promote the prosperity of this, district. The reason is that the Minister of Public Works has gone into the question of settlement of pumice lands in greater detail than any other Minister, and his conclusions, in almost every particular, are those that have been enunciated locally. Mr. Ransom states that he favours the cutting up of pumice lands into small blocks as against the bursting up of large estates by a graduated land tax; the development of these areas by unemployed workers before settlement; the creation of a Development Board to administer this work, thus divorcing the work from the present Land Boards; and the defining of land suitable for growing trees.

All the above suggestions may be found in the columns of this paper, and the only item on which criticism may be offered is the statement that development work would be under a Board covering the whole of the Dominion.

Of course, it must be realised that, as Mr. Ransom pointed out, he was trespassing somewhat on the prerogatives of the Minister of Lands in making his statement, and this being so, it may be that he did not care to go into too much detail.

As announced, however, there is an obvious weakness in the new scheme if** it is not intended to have local counties working in conjunction with the National Development Board. Such schemes cannot be run from Wellington, or from Auckland either, on present lines, as recent events have proved. I ocal knowledge of local conditions is essential, and as we have already pointed out, it is courting disaster to leave such oversight to officialdom, no matter how well intentioned, which is not assisted in some degree by that expert knowledge of both man and methods which can only be satisfactorily obtained by men on the spot; It is folly to expect men from the gum lands of the north, or from the cities, to handle pumice country successfully without some guiding influence, and this influence can only be satisfactorily obtained in the district concerned, and is not likely to be found in a National Board based on Wellington. Thus, if the hew policy which we have, advocated for so long is not to be stifled at birth, but is to be encouraged to take root and expand itself as freely as possible in the economic outlook of the nation, it is essential that the old policy of centralisation be discouraged and one of decentralisation, based on the above suggestions, encouraged to the utmost degree.