AN UNSATISFACTORY POSITION.

Shannon News, 7 April 1922, Page 4

AN UNSATISFACTORY POSITION.

No private member of Parliament is doing more useful spade-work at the present time than is Mr George Mitchcl, the representative of Wellington South. The report on land 'settlement just issued by .the Central Progress League bears unmistakably the impress of Mr Mitchell’s hand and shows by eloquent facts and figures that, wdiile New Zealand has been pluming itself upon what it has done in this respect for returned soldiers, 'it has been sadly neglecting the promotion of civilian settlement: The report points out that of a total incieasc of 4350 rural holdings since" 19.10, .t o fewer than 3941 have been created by the subdivision of purchased estates and Crown lands for soldier settlement, and that the net increase of ordinary settlement during the five years for t the whole of the Dominion amounted to no more than>s99 holdings. The ordinary settlement in the Auckland Land District in this period amounted to 1142 holdings, so that in all the other districts put together there was a decline of 542 holdings. In the Wellington district, where there arc several million acres crying aloud for closer occupation, the loss, apart from soldier Settlement, wa,s 257 holdings. What Was Happening. Referring specifically to the Wellington district, the report speculates as to what has become of the missing holdings. “Take,” 1 it .says, “a rich district like Wairarapa South, 'which in H 916 had 480 holdings, reduced to 455 in 1920, and has only 469 to : day, in spite of the fact that numbers of soldiers have settled on subdivided estates within the county. Where have these holdings gone?” Replying to its own question, the report observes that “where the number of holdings decreases and the average area of those remaining increases,” there can be only one answer and when- proceeds to give particulars of what it regards as a flagrant case of reaggregation. Its words of commendation are reserved for the Auckland province where, it says, it is realised that “stagnation and*, decay can be the only possible future for a province allowing the aggregator and the squatter to rest undisturbed.” Of course, as far as the Government is concerned, exactly the same conditions prevail in Wellington as prevail in Auckland, but the extremely unsatisfactory results obtained in the southern provinces certainly call for some explanation from the Lands Department.