BUYER OF MANY BIG ESTATES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 9

BUYER OF MANY BIG ESTATES

MR. J. D. RITCHIE RETIRES LAND PURCHASE CONTROLLER (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. After thirty-six years as a faithful servant of the Government in the Lands Department and Agricultural Department, Mr. J. D. Ritchie, Dominion Land Purchase Controller, has retired. His colleagues met him here to-day and on their behalf the Minister for Lands, Hon. A. D. McLeod, presented him with a writing-desk and travelling-bag as a mark of the appreciation which is felt throughout the service of the efforts which Mr. Ritchie made toward the development of agricultural pursuits in the Dominion since the inception of the Agricultural Department.

The Minister said there came a time in a man’s life when he must view his activities in retrospect, but those who enjoyed the robust health which Mr. Ritchie enjoyed would have but few regrets at passing into the sphere of retirement and giving over the reins of his duties to someone

Mr. McLeod paid a personal tribute to the services of Mr. Ritchie, and declared that wherever he had been throughout the country, the controller had b.een spoken of in terms of highest praise and appreciation. “I know of no country,” the Minister went on, “in which there is a greater variety of soils and conditions than is the case in New Zealand —

spread as it is over some 1,200 miles from the North Cape to the Bluff — and anyone who is placed in the position which Mr. Ritchie has occupied for the past 25 years would require special and wide knowledge of all these Things. Yet I have been astounded and pleased at the wealth of knowledge which he has displayed in. every district which has come under his jurisdiction. He has shown a keen intelligence and careful watchfulness of changing conditions over a long period of years. Ministers of the Crown arrive and depart more rapidly than those who actually handle the land administration, but all the difficulties in the main have, 1 believe, been more successfully coped with in this Dominion than in any other part of the Umpire, notwithstanding the problems which face it at the present time. The department has much to.be thankful for in having had Mr. Ritchie as the head. Into his retirement he will carry with him the best wishes of his colleagues and friends.” (Applause.) AN UNEXPIRED CONTRACT Mr. Ritchie, in his response, laughingly recalled the day when the late Sir John Mackenzie had engaged him as inspector of stock for three years. That was 36 years ago, and the contract had not yet expired. His fifty years in the Dominion had been used largely in directing his energies toward the land, and he had watched the Department of Agriculture grow from the infant it was when he took it in charge till at the present day when, he understood, there were something over 400 officers employed. He expressed gratification at having taken part in sending several important agricultural and pastoral matters through the House and ultimately on to the Statute Book during the time he served under eight or nine Ministers for Land. In the early days of his service in the Government the handling of land was a difficult matter, because suitable properties were difficult to procure at a reasonable rate. Later, after the war, when the soldiers required land, the problems of the department were intensified, for in addition to the fact that many of the soldiers were quite unadapted to farming conditions, the Government had to buy land at such a rate that some margin should be shown when it was placed under cultivation. EXPENDED £8,000,000 At the present time there was not a single departmental head left of the number who controlled the comparatively small Lands and Agricultural Departments when he accepted office 36 years ago. His associations with officers and staff had been of the happiest and he parted with them with regret. . During his term as Dominion Land Purchase Controller, Mr. Ritchie purchased on behalf of the Government 349 ordinary properties under the Lands for Settlement Act, and 114 estates for soldier settlement. These purchases involved an acreage of 807,422 acres, and an expenditure of G 8,108,207. This covered the period 1009-1927