SETTLING IDLE LANDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 8

SETTLING IDLE LANDS

JOB FOR UNEMPLOYED LANDS’ MINISTER’S VIEWS Unemployed labour may be engaged in the improvement and development o£ idle lands, according to the Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, in a letter to the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League yesterday. Preparations are now being made for the appointment of advisory committees, whose duty will be to report to the Land Development Board, and special attention Is also to be paid to the survey of all available land. Directions to intending settlers concerning procedure and where to apply are shortly to be issued. The settlement of Crown land in the Maramarua district was also referred to by Mr. Forbes, who stated that no definite information was avail able concerning the boundaries of the area available. It was intended to have a topographical survey made during the summer. The executive decided that the following points should be emphasised as requiring immediate attention: Preference to the improvement of State and unproductive lands in settlement proposals: provision for juvenile settlement; publicity as to the .lands available and the measure of Government assistance; Inducement to capital to invest in land;, safeguarding State advances and rural credits schemes of the principle that the farmer who improves his holding is entitled to preferential treatment; exploitation of the Empire Settlement Act; and a detailed announcement of settlement proposals as promised by the Minister of Lands. It was decided to write to the Prime Minister expressing the league’s approval of the appointment of Lord Bledisloe as Governor-General, A suggestion that the league should take the earliest opportunity of placing Its views before him was approved.