LAND SETTLEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 797, 18 October 1929, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

CAUTION VOICED IN UPPER HOUSE “A HUGE EXPERIMENT" THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Wed. Caution was the note struck by speakers in the Legislative Council when the Land Laws Amendment Bill came up for commitment. The Bill was put through all stages without amendment. The Hon. J. B. Gow believed that an independent valuation of Crown lands should be made without considering what it had cost to bring the land - into its present condition, and that the land should be offered to the settlers at that price. Hhe Hon. V. H. Reed said that taxation on unimproved value and graduated land-tax had stopped the right clas# of men from extending operations to the unimproved class -of country. The State alone remained able to break in unimproved land, and that at a loss. It was going to cost more to break in the North Auckland lands than they would be worth, although he thought the State was right in making that loss to obtain Increased production. He did not believe that cutting up large areas of land necessarily meant increased production.

"This is a huge experiment,” said the Hon. L. M. Isitt. “If it is a failure it will be a serious thing for us in our present financial position.” The Hon. W. W. Snodgrass was not pessimistic, as there was every prospect of the Bill bringing prosperity. The Hon. T. K. Sidey, Leader cf the Council, replying said the Bill had received a sympathetic hearing from the members and there had been really no destructive criticism. He accepted the warnings in the spirit in which they were given. The Bill was read a third time and passed without amendment.