LAND SETTLEMENT

Taihape Daily Times, 24 January 1919, Page 7

LAND SETTLEMENT

Tsk' statement by M;\ Guthrie regarding the provision OJ laud tor soldiers docs not cli.-closc a satisfactory policy of land settlement, nor does ii display much enthusiasm for the methods which the 'Minister persists in following. Mr. Guthrie is evidently satisfied to provide for only the "smal] proportion of the men who want land," as though the duty o£ the Government goes no further than that. He does not admit that many returned soldiers who were anxious to go upon the land have been discouraged by the conditions which the Government invltefl them to accept, nor does he Kialise that no policy can be acceptable which does not provide for the rapid and continuous development of the Dominion's idle lands. The Government's first duty is, of course, to returned New Zealand soldiers, and Mr. Guthrie will presumably be content if at the end of. the demobilisation period he has found a section for every soldier whose determination or inexperienc. forces him to accept the debt-laden land which is all has to offer. With few exceptions, the "small proportion" or returned soldiers will then apparently be placed on the subdivisions of estates which'~were already producing before the Government embarked upon this remarkable policy, while the great estate of the Crown will still lie unoccupied and unfruitful. Nearly a million and a-quarter has been expended in the purchase of private estates, though from the Minister's return it is impossible to ascertain the cost of any transaction, and at the best, in the Auckland land district, under 300 soldiers have been given even the opportunity to make the success of which the Minister speaks. The prices which have been paid may have been in some cases as reasonable as Mr. Guthrie claims, but that docs not alter the fact that the Crown already held large areas suitable for settlement which could have been offered on far more advantageous terms. In view of the Government's professions of a desire to encourage settlement and to increase, production, the Minister could hardly have made a more unconvincing and discouraging statement. It is sincerely to be hoped that the country will "oo spared the calamity of the Government's acceptance of such a short-sighted and inadequate policy.— "New Zealand Herald."