DOMINION'S PROBLEMS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 78, 23 November 1931, Page 6

DOMINION'S PROBLEMS

(Coxitinued) clevelopment of new areas of land, he also felt that he had a duty to ensure that settlers were not placed on land where they had no possibility of earning a reasonable livelihood. The Lands Development Board had under eonsideration applications from a great number of men who were desirous of taking up land. In many cases the district lands board was prepared to recommend advances to assist these men, but in many cases it was found on investigation that the g/pplicants had no reasonable possibil'ty of working the farms as paying propositions. In these cases, he considered that the applications should bo declined rather than allow the men to take over properties which they would be unable to develop on a paying basis. (Applause). He considered that the pumice belt had better prospects for development than any other part of the Dominion. He remembered when portion of the Matamata district, at present excellent farming land, had looked as poor a propos'tion as any of the undeveloped land around Rotorua. But this Matamata area, by scientiflc development, had been brought to a high state of production. What had been done in Matamata, he considered, could be done around Rotorua. I Assistance For Development

Referring to the Guthrie Settlement the Minister stated that in the first case this land had been provided free for the settlers, and on condition that they carried out eertain improvements to the satisfaction of the Department, they had obtained a free tenure. The weakness of this system, however, had been that in many cases the settlers had not suffieient capital j to carry out the developmental work. i Legislation had now been introduced providing that men in these circumstances could obtain Government assistance up to £1250 for the purposes of deyeloping their property. Dealing with further development possibilities the Minister -suggested that an inspection of all privately owned undeveloped lands hr'ght be carried out. S;x months notice could be given to the owners to carry out developmental work and in cases where the owner was unable to do this work he might be allowed a section of the land, and the balance be acquired by the Government. The

amount of the purchase price could then be paid into a trust fund, from which the original owner could draw for the purposes of developing his own secUon. If there was any balanqe, this could be made available to him when the developmental work was completed. At the same time, the Government could proceed with the development of the rema'nder of the block. One of the advantages of such a system would be that it would contribute very substantially in relieving the unemployment position. There were approximately 80,000 farmers in the Dominion at present, and each addit'onal farmer placed on the land indireetly gave employment to men in other avocations. Ngakuru Block The Minister proceeded to refer to the excel'ent results being obtained from the development of the Ngakuru block. "There are some people who think that block is going to be a failure," he said. "Does any one here think so?" (Cries of "yes." and a voice announced that it would cost from £30 an acre to put men on it).. The M nister said that he was sure the block would develop into an ex- . cellent dairying propos t'on. In order ;to determine the productivity of the block a development farm was being conducted f om which settlers could obtain an indication of what could be taken off the land. Voices: More waste of money. I Galatea "I understand that there has been some adverse comment regarding the purchase of Galatea by one of the pandidates in the district," stated the Minister. I A vo'"ce: Not about the purcnase. About the expenditure. The Minister: I must say I am rather surprised at any one making "Auch a statement. If a man has no .faith in the Galatea country he can , have no faith in any of the Rotorua , country. It is an excellent block and ©very practical man who has seen it I has said the same.

It was hoped to settle 120 farmers • on the estate, the Minister proceeded. Before it was purehased by the Government it had carried 20,000 head of sheep and 1500 head of cattle, all of excellent type. This showed what r could be done with the land. Shelter belts were being constructed throughout the property, extensive roading, Stocking, and fencing, was being carjied out, and altogether he considered *that the settlers who obtained sections would be very fortunate in their property. A voice: What will be the price per acre? The Minister: The pi-ice per acre Will be what it costs us. In some quarters it had been stated, ■said the Minister, that the Government proposed to e^ect houses cost•ing £600 or £700 apiece on the Galatea sections. This was entirely wrong and the Depax-tment's only intention "was to provide reasonable living ac"commodation at as low a cost as posisible.

Labour Statements - Leaving land development, Mr. Ransom proceeded to deal with recent •statements by the leader of the LaBour Party, Mr. H. E. Holland. Mr. HoRrnd had said that taxation could bg reduced but that he would subsild:se t^o primary producor fom the consol'dafed account. If Mr. Holland could do this he was a wizard of finance. Borrowed money could not •be paid into the conso'idnted account and this meanfc that before money •could be taken out of ;t, money musl; •also be paid in from taxes and oiber favenue. Under these circumstances bo faiied to see bow Mr. Ho'land proposed to reduco taxation on tfie --ne hand and subsidise the primary pro.ducer on the other. Mr. HoFand aiso sugcested that an j internal loan of £25,000,000 might also be raisad to unprove the nation? 1 ;c -edit. Irmroving the national credit was certainly a very desirable thing, ;but tho raising of such a loan would only have the effect of depriving the

primary producers of the assistance which they were at present able to obtain from the banks. In another statement Mr. Holland had said that the flow of credit should be restored. He agreed with Mr. Holland there,. but the point was, what means were to be adopted to that end. Only a strong government inspiring confidence could restore credit. (Disturbance) .. Unemployment Mr. Ransom proceeded to refer to conditions in Australia and had got to the point of remarking that Australia had at present no credit on the Home market when he was interrupted by a running fire of interjection. This was renewed when he proceeded to refer to the unemployment posi- | tion. At one time he had thought bys" his public utteranees that the Leader of the Labour Party was in favour of sustenance, but now Mr. Holland had turned round and condemned the whole of the unemployment system as wasteful and unproductive. In this connection it was interesting to reeall the position in Great Britain where £800,000,000 had been paid out since the inception of the dole and £94,000,000 alone during the year i 1930-31, without any of this vast sum I being directed into productive channels. "Unemployment," Mr. Ransom stated, "was the country's greatest problem to-day. In this district it might not be so serious as in many others. (Cries of oh!). The Min-

ister: I am sure no one can suggest that more has not been done here than in some other places. (Further interjections)." Proceeding, the Minister stated that he thought many members of tho public were not quite fair to the Government in condemning all the unemployment schemes as being merely "chipping the grass off the streets." It was true that this class | of work had been done but it was only a very small proportion of the work embraced by the Unemployment Board's schemes. Schemes 2, 3, 4A, and 4B were all productive, Mr. Ransom contended, while Scheme No. 5, wlreh had come in for a great :-eal of criticism, actually had been esponsible for a great deal of very va'uable work. In addition to the arge number of men employed under these schemes a further proportion of the unemployed was being used by the Public Works Department at standard rates of pay. Over 1000 had also been used by the Forestry De-

partment and a further quota by the Lands Department. At the same time ^e was prepared to admit that a great rleal more could be done and the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, who was now in charge of unemployment, was at present concentrating on finding further productive avenues. Personally, he thought that a lot could be done to mprove back country roads and this matter was at present receiving very serious eonsideration. In his opinion back block settlers were entitled to special eonsideration in the way of roading facilities and during his tenure as Minister of Public Works he had been instrumental in having the grant for back country road improvement increased from £30,000 to £100,000. In conclusion, Mr. Ransom reiter"ted his appeal to the electors to suport the Coalition party and ensure i strong and stable Government which would be able to deal with the present v'e.y ciitical situation.

Question Time I At the conclusion of the address, he'cha.rman indicated that the Minister would answer written auestions on subject matter relevant to his ad.iress. In reply to a question as to wheiher it was a fact that the cost of • ettling the Galatea estate would be in excess of £3000 for each settler, the Minister said that it was impossible at present to say just how much it would cost to settle the estate, but cn present indications, he did not consider that the figure mentioned would twen be approached. "Will you tell us why the Labour Party refused to join the Coalition?" was hnother question. Mr. Ransom said he did not know, but that there had been no feeling attached to the matfcer. It had been stated that the Labour Party had not been invited to co-operate in a National Government, but this was not true. He had heard the invitation given himself. "Do you consider that sitting members of Parliament, through their party leaders, should arrogate to ihemselves, the right of re-election?"

was the next question. "I do not think this question has any bearing upon my address," said the Minister. "I am not here to be catechised. I am only prepared to answer questions of interest to my audience." I A voice: It can't be answered. "I am not going to hide my politics. Ever since I have been able to exereise a vote, I haye voted Reform, but this election I shall support the Coalition party," stated the chairman of the Rotorua County Council, Mr. H. P. Ford, in moving a vote of thanks to the speaker and of confidence in the Coalition Government and its official candidate. The motion was seconded by Mr. George Steele. "We bekeve that it requires able men m the House at the present crisis and we believe the leaders of the Government have no right to dictate to us," stated Mr. E. T. Johnston, who moved as an amendment, a vote of no confidence in the sitting member,

Clinkard. The chairman said that he could not accept the amendment unless, it ineluded a vote of thanks to the speaker. Mr. Johnston stated that he regretted. he had unintentionally omitted this portion of the amendment. General anplause and interjections broke out all over the house and amidst this a man who had persistently interrupted Mr. Ransom from ?. sent in the front, stood up and proceeded to address the meeting. Immedia^ely he did so interjections vnd applaxise were sustained to such an extent that h;s voice could not be heard, "while the chairman told him that he woul 1 not allow any discussion on the amendment. The ayes and the noes appeared to be very even7y divided on the amendme.rt, but the chairman ruled it lost. The moticn was then put, with a simih r resi'lt but on this occasion, the chairman's ruling was drowned by the hubbub of applause and protest intermingled.