POLITICAL TALKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 16

POLITICAL TALKS

LAND SETTLEMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT COUNTING THE COST -or ZSE SVS V M P.l XIIL Man; ta-re bar; ideas abont land settlement and unemp-oyment-There is an impression abroad that :t is a -imple matter lor tfie Government to bey large areas of land, open - for ballot or selection approve the o.sappear like mist before the sun. - e purchases for land -ettlemen: and • ;ae seem to think it can be done as easily to-day. The problem is entirely different- In the early - Lrhties the farmers '* r -re cultivating nearly 4.-,ld- acres of wheat. Artir. ai mannres were unknown and the ground. through excessive cropping, ■-•a* be* omrog impoverished and infested v;tii weeds. There were over sheep in the Dominion, bat meat export was unknown and a cheep's only value was little more than its wool. The country was poor and the prospects uninviting. owo wonderful discoveries, however, were made Refrigeration and the cream separator. These- two discoveries nave been the maar tag:. rs in the remarkable progress and development of the Dcmt;:_ Refrigeration abolished distance in the export of meat and butter. the separator made butter-making on a largr scale for export practicable and opened to us the world’s markets. Land settlement followed as the result of the insistent demand of the people to obtain land. Cmr frozen meat and hairy produce trade expanded rapidly and * while the politicians claim the credit, taeir share was comparatively trifling compared with the material benefits that science placed within our reachThe standard of living was not what it is ■ to-day. Settlers ideas were modest. A cwie-roomed whare or a two roomed lean-to costing less than £l. waa the usual outfit, and the house was added :o as the grew, if fortune smiled. Land was cheap and plentiful. With increasing exports rising x»rices faAiing became attractive and the city failed to lure. -

During the war our primary products were in great demand. The farmer s r\ri the business man made hand~ome profits and money rapidly accumulated. Our mortgages had all been put in cold storage through the mcratenum and were held in suspense in--.:ead of being materially reduced. Speculation in land became rife. The tinker, tailor, but particularly the p rofesatoxial man eagerly desired to ecome a bloated squatter. They ought land with much cash but little knowledge. obtained great experience. but not an experience they are anxious to repeat- The exaggerated idea of the money to be made out f ’and was exceedingly unfortunate for the Dominion, creating as it did a land boom. Then an insistent demand arose to put the returning soldi era on the land. This was done, but the Tat>H was at peak prices accentu_:ed by the competition of the Government in the land market. The greater portion of the land purha*e» were paid for out of surplus revenue. t*o the losses incurred were not appreciably felt, and the enormous increase in production that followed -o idler settlement, particularly in dairy produce, put the Dominion in the proud position of being 'the greatest exporter of mutton, lamb and dairy produce in the world. Under the circum--tanees, when we take all the facts into consideration, the Dominion need have few regrets over its soldier settlement policy. The financial slump of 1921 and the following years completely reversed the farmers’ position and fanning has become, up to last year, the least sought occupation. Land settlement dwindled, because although a goodly percentage of the land of the Dc minion was on the market there were few applicants and land was unsaleable. Two good production years with fair prices have improved the farmer’s financial position and there is again a good demand setting :n for land, that will have to be met.

r.lJir/O.v OR PURCHASE The argument principally used in favour of settlement is that this would •effectually solve the whole of our unemployment problem. The wily politician by carefully inspired propaganda is playing on the well-known credulity of the public and daily the solution of the problem is being anticipated. Important as it is. the subject has been dealt with in a very general and superficial manner, for no one has gone deeply into the question and presented to the public the approximate cost, the difficulties to be overcome, and the number of men we may reasonably expect to provide for by giving them farms. Several methods may be adopted to make land available. If taxation is decided upon it will require Parliamentary sanction, but the power to purchase land or to bring into operation the compulsory power of purchase is already law and the Government can proceed immediately under either of these systems if it elects so to do. One of the charges laid against the past Government was that it did not take land compulsorily, so we may expect to see the United Party now make very wide use of the compulsory powers that they possess and it will be exceedingly interesting to see this power exercised and the result. An increase of the graduated tax is r.ot likely to take place without some further classification of the freehold land of the Dominion. This tax was originally introduced to break up big estates and has been reasonably successful. It is, however, pressing very unjustly on a considerable number of large landholders who have properties not suitable for subdivision. Their inaccessibility. the expense and difficulty of roading. the quality or broken naranter of the country, make them undesirable propositions for economic - abciivision, and even if an increase :n the graduated tax were deemed desiraMe it would be manifestly unfair to include prope ties of this descrip-

tion.. Yet to restrict the tax to suitable settlement land would be a very difficult system to inaugurate.

THE MOSEY IXYQLYED Purchase of land either voluntarily cr compulsorily immediately raises the question of finance. Parliament has always been generous in providing this within limits, but now suppose we have a look at what the actual proposals mean in the way of money. Take as a basis the land re-

oaßtly purchased by the new Gctctb-~rr-z i£ the Manawam which is the inly purchase yet made. The area is acres, testing £55 an acre. In an inspired statement to The Press :* was estimated the block would cut up into from in to favourable view these 1” sect, ins - ic i-'inii if it - There are some cottages on the property, so I will assess the average cost of building, etc., at £7s*l. instead of £, LSL-v. which I estimate a bare secti.n would require. Each settler wiL pation. Sonae settlers would be able to put op their own buildings out o? their savings that it nt-ght be reason- - -- H ever. 1 want to put it in the most favourable light. Two thousand -etriers at £2.lvj each will cost vc-j for one year's work, and then the cost of stock has to be taken into consideration for farther auvan.es. There is. however, another aspect that is always over locked. In purchMins .and sufficient to settle farmers we would be disp_acmg at least I.oo# farm workers already employed on these large holdings, so that our net gait for the expenditure of £6. '>X\exclusive of stock, would be about 1 h.K> men taken off the labour market. The buildings would. of course, absorb a considerable amount of labour In the first year, but this is of a temporary character. I have no means of knowing the number of men that nave been, put on public works who are cume-d as the unemployed, and also the number still on the waiting list, but Sun readers can begin to calculate from their own estimates something of the cost of the proposed scheme and decide whether it is practical from a financial standpoint. After all, finance is the first essentdaL DAVID JONES.