Making New Settlers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 696, 22 June 1929, Page 8

Making New Settlers

Proposals Placed Before State

THOUSANDS of acres of idle lands are waiting for ihe plough. Thousands of men are seeking jobs. Thousands of pounds are available for investment. Around these three thoughts a meeting of - over 100 people, held last evening in Auckland, was prepared to construct a case proving the practicability of solving the Dominion’s most acute problem.

y XHAtJSTIVE research has been undertaken over the past few months by the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League, with headquarters in Auckland, to show the authorities that hundreds of thousands of acres of workable land were available at a comparatively reasonable figure. By workable land—it was shown in a recent article in this column —it was meant not the rich virgin dairying pastures of the first class, but second-class land which, with careful treatment, has been proved capable' of production. The Government in its promises to effect closer settlement has been taken seriously by the league, and last evening’s meeting pledged its hearty support to Parliament in any legislative action that might be promulgated toward this end. If Parliament accomplished the one purpose of establishing a comprehensive land settlement scheme, it was averred, its sessional mission would be worthily fulfilled. Lands, men and money were idle, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth rightly pointed out. Surely the country possessed the brains to make use of this triple asset! WAGE-EARNERS WILLING One of the most popular objections to extensive land settlement as a solution of the unemployed problem was destroyed by Mr. G. Day, president of the Workers' Union at Purewa. Manual wage-earners harboured no objection to becoming settlers, he said, in promising to produce at short notice 30 men willing to go on the land upon workable conditions. Specific instances of land which could be turned into workable farms were given by the secretary of the league, Mr. G. N. Gribble, who, as the result of his research, produced a map showing areas of 1,000 acres and upward in the North Auckland district, at present unalienated, totalling in extent 200,000 acres.

The map, which was prepared by the Lands Department, showed also a block, of 210,000 acres of Crown and State forest reserve lands north of Waihi, to which Mr. A. M. Samuel,

M.P.. had drawn public attention, and 400,000 acres, all Crown lands, in the Rotorua and Taupo districts. The North Auckland areas mentioned included one of 10,000 acres on the Northern Wairoa River, and another of 11,000 acres in the Bay of Islands. On the Bay of Islands property a small amount of experimental work had been done. Land adjoining it had cost £6 to £lO an acre to make productive, and was carrying stock successfully, although it had not been top-dressed for ten years. According to Mr. Samuel, half the land on the Coromandel Peninsula was simply waiting for the plough. DEAD LOSS TO STATE

An economic viewpoint, advanced by the president of the Farmers’ Union, Mr. A. A. Ross, was that it was better to involve an initial loss in the establishment of a land settlement scheme ultimately productive of good than to lose in a dead-weight manner the huge sums of money now being absorbed in State relief. Labour’s viewpoint, perhaps one of the keenest searchlights upon the problem, was that in a country with productive lands idle, unemployment was not excusable in any way. Mr. T. Bloodworth confirmed this opinion when he estimated that the £25,000 State subsidy offered to each of the four centres would build only four or five miles of streets, but it would furnish 11 men with £SOO each to start them upon the land. It would employ 125 men at £4 a week for a year in preparing land for occupation. The remedy for this problem, it is generally recognised, must come ultimately through the channels of State machinery. Legislation to settle, and the money to provide the essentials of settlement, must be produced through Parliament. Solid support in bringing this about—support by the collection of data, and the assistance of chosen settlers to the land when the scheme is instituted—was promised by last evening’s meeting, which in a resolution conveyed these sentiments to the Government, at the same time tacitly reminding the Prime Minister of, and thanking him for, his promise made in this connection recently to the league.