LAND DEVELOPMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 965, 7 May 1930, Page 11

LAND DEVELOPMENT

CLOSER SETTLEMENT URGED DEPUTATION TO MINISTER “The league believes that the future depends not so much on the larger area as on close settlement,” said Mr. W. J. hoidsworth, chairman of the Auckland Land Settlement and Development League, heading a deputation that waited upon the Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, yesterday afternoon. Y|K. HOLDS WORTH said the league had been delighted with the reports of Mr. Forbes’s activities in the .\orth, and they believed he would now be in a position to ask the Government to do something on a comprehensive scale with the Crown lands. "M e have noted that the Government has been buying larger areas and subdividing them, but while appreciating this we are afraid that there must be a limit on the amount of money to be spent on laud settlement. We do not iike to think that nothing will be left for closer settlement,” said Mr. Hoidsworth.

“They are two entirely different funds,” Mr. Forbes said. The land settlement fund is totally different from that for land development. There is £1,000,000 for land purchase and £5,000,000 for land development.” The league had been told that there was British capital available for the development of some of the large areas, Mr. Hoidsworth continued. Would it be possible to give them attractive conditions? With the idea of closer settlement one group would be satisfied with a return of 5 per cent, on its money. “Any private scheme in this direction has not been at all profitable in the past,” said Mr. Forbes. LARGE SCALE Mr. Hoidsworth thought that group settlement should be tried here on a fairly large scale under proper supervision. There should be some practical and capable men to give instruction and supervise operations. Many people had attempted to go on the land and had found their capital gone before receiving any return. In order that the land should not be loaded with unnecessary charges it -was thought that the scheme should be undertaken on a large scale. It would be agreed that the trouble in the past had been caused by high land values. Mr. N. G. Gribble, secretary of the league, said that with the improved access to the North there was opportunity for a very courageous forward movement. Any immigration policy should be in strict relation to settlement, but there was one on which no adverse comment had been heard: — that of boy settlement. Over 2,000 boys had been brought out by various organisations, and the league was assured that 98 per cent, had done well and stuck to the land. It was urged that the Government should consider schemes to give the boys a chance of proprietorship when they knew their jobs. LOOKING TO THE NORTH

Mr. Forbes said he had made tlie visit to the North to see what the possibilities were from a practical standpoint. He looked to the North more than to any other part of the Dominion for increased farming. It was a healthy time for land settlement, and it seemed that there were people* looking for an opportunity to get on Crown lands.

Referring to group settlement. Mr. Forbes said the question at the present time was one of where it could be applied. He did not know of anywhere it could be applied in New Zealand. The temperament of people had to be considered and their attitude toward working under supervision. Really good land was needed to do it. He believed that the greatest success could be achieved by putting a man on the land with the incentive to work long hours on the understanding that when the land was developed he would have a home and an independent existence. “We are trying to bring in as much of our land as possible and to make it so that it can be applied for,” Mr. Forbes said. “I have been discussing with Sir Apirana Ngata the consolidation of native blocks in the King Country and those of the Crown, so that they may be dealt with for settlement, and we hope to be able to do something there.”