STILL INDECISION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 286, 28 July 1932, Page 4

STILL INDECISION

Since public attention was recently focussed upon the position, the Government has done nothing to advance the settlement of the Galatea estate. The recent statement by the Minister for Native Affairs, that the estate is being tested for bush sickness, does not earry conviction and savours rather much of a red herring designed to direct attention from the maim issues. So far as can be ascertained there is nothing to support the Minister's contention that Galatea may prove sick country, and if the Departments responsible are not already assured on that point, the fault is their own. Despite the urgent necessity for grappling with land settlement on a eomprehensive scale, the Government is still dallying with the problem. Galatea is one example and Ngakuru appears likely' to be another. Ngakuru No. 1 block is now ready for settlement and has been so for some time, but nothing has so far been done towards placing men on the land and setting them to work. The same indecisive attitude has also been adopted in regard to the various very sound settlement schemes which have been advanced in different parts of the Dominion. It is time that the Government displayed more decision and vigour in grappling with what is unquestionably one of the most urgent and vital problems confronting the country.