OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 295, 4 July 1929, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

LAND SETTLEMENT. j THE announcement made in the Governor’s speech forecasting amendments to the Lands for Settlement Act with a view to strengthening the compulsory clauses, was not unexpected to those who have kept in close touch with land settlement affairs. A process of bargaining cannot well be indulged in by departmental officers when seeking land for settlement, and in view of past happenings another land boom must be avoided at all costs. So that if holders of large areas expect unreasonable prices for their land a stalemate results.

When such is the case the Government cannot be blamed for not getting on with their job aiid purchasing blocks for settlement. Until Parliament approves of amendments to the present Act it would be sheerest folly to give the prices which are being put on some areas by their owners. Indeed, it is hard to understand the attitude adopted by many land owners in various parts -of the country. In one case an owner offered the best part of his land for sale on the open market at a certain price. A few weeks later he offered the whole block to the Government, including much poorer country, for a twenty-five per cent advance on the price he asked for the pick of* his land. In other cases two and ahalf and a third times the valuation have been demanded. In view of the fact that most private sales entail a large proportion of the purchase price remaining' on paper, while a sale to the Government ensures a | cash deal, such owners would appear to be riot only blind to the country’s interests but also to their own.

Compulsion may not be very desirable, but it is patently a necessary expedient and having proved most successful in the past there is no reason to doubt that it will be equally successful as now found to be necessary under the changed conditions of modern times. What many owners appear to forget is that before such land can be settled, the cost of survev, roading and buildings, has to be added, to say nothing of the cost of breaking in unimproved country; and when all this is. totted up the price generally reaches a figure which precludes all possibility of successful settlement. In view of these factors it was onlv to he expected that the Act would he amended and the country will now await with interest the proposals of the Minister of Lands for dealing with one of the Dominion’s most urgent problems.