T 0 Settle Waste Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 459, 14 September 1928, Page 8

T 0 Settle Waste Lands

League Suggests Active Board

A DEFINITE endeavour has been made by the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League to solve New Zealand’s most difiicnlt and perplexing problem—that of effectively settling the rural wastes of the Dominion A Land Settlement Board, with power to administer the. land ~statute, and to co-operate with the Empire Settlement Board in rural migration, with an annual appropriation from the Treasury, is proposed. :

In announcing the text of its land. settlement policy, the League claims to base its proposals upon investigations undertaken over several years and suggests that a commission or board of inquiry—even if not adopted by the State as an administrative body—can produce nothing but good in bringing the community to a recognition of the requirements of the rural settlers. ' ‘ ~

It is evident in the minds of league members that the Deminion has lagged behind other countries in the effective settlement of its land, but it is advanced as a concrete suggestion that all State departments must work in

“WONDER RACECOURSE”—Viscount Lascelles, husband of Princess Mary, is among the prominent sportsmen interested in a £250,000 scheme to erect the world’s largest grandstand and effect sweeping improvements at Doncaster.

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harmony in a general endeavour to bring about healthy investment of public money in productive farming. It is feared by them that pessimistic statements from time to time have created a distrust of. 'the potentialities of. our primary industries and frightened prospective capital investments in rural securities, while the difliculty of securing New Zealand lads to go on farms is laid to some extent at the door of education with a. town biazs.

These passing criticisms, however, are directed more at the general community than at the administration, and anxiety is expressed to revive in the public mind a feeling of renewed faith in farming securities. The league suggests a. farming board, the functions of which would be to co-operate with the Empire

Settlement Board. It would possess sole authority to control assisted rural migration, and would receive a direct mandate from Parliament —to which it would report annually—while the administration of existing land legislation would be placed largely in its hands. providing the money Finance, that bugbear of successful small farming in this country, is necessarily treated vaguely by the league. It is proposed, however, that New Zealand should take advantage of the offer of the overseas settlement organisations and ensure capital at a low rate of interest for increasing farming population. It is estimated that in ordinary circumstances the young farmer requires £I,OOO before he can hope to make his holding selfsupporting, and if the scheme of the league were adopted the land board would be provided with an annual grant from the Treasury for judicious administration to approved settlers. Canada and Australia, it is pointed out, have availed themselves of the facilities of the Empire Settlement Act, and the capital secured thereunder, and the increased production and population which has resulted have been to the national advantage. The pending visit of Lord Lovat, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, is seized upon as an appropriate opportunity to launch a constructive and tangible policy, and the league has determined to place its suggestions before him on his arrival in New Zealand next month. The board, if established, would be constituted for five years in order that the scheme be given a chance to justify itself; and efficiency and advisory committees would be organised in the various rural centres with the object of bringing forward land suitable for settlement, and preparing costs and returns. The board would also supervise the establishment of group cadet settlement areas. DAIRYING IN AUCKLAND The opening of the Taupo-Rotorua railway, making available as it does 400,000 acres of Crown lands within the Auckland land district, is viewed as a timely undertaking, and the dairying potentialities of the district, as well as the grain-growing facilities and the afforestation possibilities, are included in a picture of rural progress. The consideration of Empire settlement is recommended in three phases: (1) A proportion of imported labour to assist in wholesale improvement operation of virgin country, with the idea of individualising later. (2) The introduction of settlers from overseas to go on to land partially improved. (3) Boys and girls to be trained in this country for rural occupations. This policy, which is advanced by the league as a genuine attempt to expand settlement and increase production, is being offered to the authorities for their consideration.