AID FOR CROWN TENANTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 954, 23 April 1930, Page 8

AID FOR CROWN TENANTS

MINISTER OUTLINES HELP AVAILABLE DETERIORATED LANDS Press Association STRATFORD, Tuesday. “I find that people are not very well informed as to what the Government is prepared to do in the way of advances to Crown tenants," said the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, today. The previous Government, he continued. had found it necessary to make special provision for men on deteriorated land, and the present Government thought it its duty to find out why so much land was going back to second growth. As regards men who had cleared land and found it going back to second growth, a measure of relief had been provided by giving a rebate of rent for 10 years, provided the occupier spent a -sum equal to the rent on fertilisers. The Minister had seen places where this provision had been availed of, and the land was gradually being brought back. Recognising that it was not wise to let land go back, the Government last session passed legislation which it was hoped would stop deterioration. It was found in most cases that land went back chiefly from lack of capital. Crown land was usually taken up by men without capital, or very little, and they usually found themselves at the end of their resouces when their land lost the fertility arising from burns. The Government felt something should be done to enable such men to get advances on improvement, and legislative authority was obtained for borrowing £5,000,000, to be devoted by the Lands Department to Crown tenants on improvements made. Any Crown tenant who can show permanent improvements is entitled to an advance of 90 per cent, of their value. If that advance is spent in

improvements a further advance of 90 per cent- of value can be procured, and advances can be drawn until the occupier has had advances totalling £1,250. Advances on this basis could not be obtained from ordinary lending institutions. nor from the State Advances Office, said Mr. Ransom. So far the provision had not been availed of as much as it might be. The Government's desire was to help the genuine trier and to give him assistance in his work. Invariably second growth was a feature of places with a high rainfall. At the Guthrie settlement on pumice land at Atiamuri. near Rotorua, tenants were given up to 200 acres, and were required to make certain improvements for six years, when, if the improvements were duly made, they were to be given title to the land. After three years on the land in the settlement the occupiers seemed to have exhausted their capital resources, and they had nothing to offer as security in the ordinary borrowing channels. The Government’s recent legislation would enable these settlers to get advances on their improvements, and some had made improvements to considerable value. At the end of the six years the advances would be a charge on land, but the settlers should not object to that.