Land Settlement Involves Borro wing

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 403, 11 July 1928, Page 13

Land Settlement Involves Borro wing

MINISTER STATES POLICY A NOTE OF CAUTION That land settlement could not be extended without the State incurring greater financial liability was the answer the Hon. A. D. McLeod gave to-day to those; who have been urging development on these lines. “It is a fact,” said Mr. McLeod, speaking at the opening of the Winter Show, “that those who are most , insistent in stressing the evils of overborrowing are often those who ask lor more development and still more development. “The New Zealand Land Develop-

ment League, with its headquarters in Auckland, has been insisting that the Government should set up a Commission of Inquiry to consider the question of developing unoccupied and unproductive areas, especially those in the Auckland province. ALTRUISM RECOGNISED

“I have throughout recognised the earnest and altruistic motives prompting those chiefly responsible for the league’s activities, but I have also recognised that any scheme on a large scale, however hopeful in its ultimate outlook, must be closely bound up with the amount of finance which could be made available by. the Government and Parliament.

“I have little hesitation In saying that but for the millions made available under the Stat*e Ad vances scheme, and for road and bridge construction, drainage, etc., combined with very large rent remissions both in the socalled deteriorated areas anrl elsewhere, settlers probably to the number of thousands would have been forced to leave their holdings.” In view of the fact that the borrowing capacity of this country was not unlimited, he, as Minister of Lands, could see no virtue in allowing a number of prospective settlers to go on the land while at the same time a smiliar number were leaving it. RUSH SETTLEMENT

He also pointed out that the Government did not under-estimate the value to the Dominion of creating a large number of holdings, of even less than 20 acres, but the experience gained in settling soldiers had proved that rush settlement in large numbers of those only able to engage in the production of fruit, poultry, vegetables and hogs, soon brought about market saturation which made the possibility of the settlers making a living extremely doubtful. As a Government, therefore, the policy had been to endeavour as far as possible to find, by financial and scientific moans, an assured payable export market for surplus: produce accruing from small holdings, before strongly urging people to take up such a class of farming.

“In regard to land settlement generally. said Mr. McLeod, “let me say that although there is litrle doubt that an initial financial loss is justifiable in land development in view of the ultimate benefit to the community, I believe it is the duty of a Government to let the general taxpayer know at the outset what proportion of the cost will be required of him.”