The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1911. STRANGERS WARNED OFF.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 310, 25 May 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1911. STRANGERS WARNED OFF.

It is commonly believed in Xew Zealand that it is impossible for this country to offer such advantages to potential settlers as other countries offer. The supposed reason is that Xew Zealand is a small country, more remotely situated than any other dominion, and that the land is dear. The Xew Zeal and er would scorn the idea that his land was worth no more than Canadian prairie country, but it is almost unnecessary to say that uncultivated land in the richest country 1 in the world is of less value than cultivated land in the poorest. Although there are millions of acres of Crorn and Native land in this country worth absolutely nothing in its unused condition, we still persist in the idea that it is so valuable as to be beyond the reach of men who would grow something <m it. The difficulties in the way of giving everybody a chance to make useless land useful are, of course, very great, and so they are not undertaken. We quoted the other day the reason some men had for leaving Xew Zealand. Here is another opinion being widely circulated: Mr. 11. Ilill, the chief inspector of schools in Hawke's T!a v district, has been on a visit to England, and lias on his return been interviewed by the Xew Zealand Times regarding his impressions of travel. "Men won't come out to New Zealand." remarked Mr. Hill, "on the mere possihilitv of being successful at a land ballot. For instance, two English farmers joined our steamer at Suva. They (old me that they bad been trying to get land in Xew Zealand at, the ballot for a long period, but had failed to do so. and were returning to England. When 1 cot to London [ made inquiries at the High Commissioner's office, and T was informed that there was no land available. The stall' could only give information of land likely to be obtained, and that whoever went out must accept the same conditions as those already in the Dominion."

That is to say, (lie millions of acres of unused lands in Xew Zealand must remain unavailable until somebody wakes up. As far as the London ollice appears to know. Xew Zealand contains all the it requires. 'Men who are in earnest about acquiring land chase all over this country on the chance of getting a holding by the land ballot system. Piv far the larger proportion are naturally unsuccessful. To bring people out from the Old Country on the half chance that in a vear or so they may win some land in a gamble is not appealing. They are not concerned about the emptiness of this country, ils unexplored wealth, its enormous potentialities. They are concerned in making a living. If the gigantic handicaps to a reasonable settlement are understood, It'

is obvious that they will go somewhere where there are no handicaps. We have been talking much lately about "saving the Maori." But wc don't make him hustle either to work his land or to dispose of it. In many places in New Zealand big-hearted settlers are carving out homes for themselves alongside vast areas of Maori lands. The Maori land is almost worthless because it is unworked, the Maoris being content to let the timber rights. The Maoris remain untaxed and idle. The white man pushes his work alongside the Maori land, makes roads and eutlivates his holding. Tie therefore enormously increases the problematical price of the Maori land, its owners merely sitting down in physical atrophy until the fool pakeha has made a fortune for them to waste. It must interest a stranger to this country to ride through vast spaces of the most fertile land in the world, and to be told by the Department that "there is no land available," and that when a small slice is made ready by the Government he can have a hundred-to-one chance of wining a morsel at the resultant ballot. One might suppose that a Department, which is the most important one in the State, would reason that as the cultivated portion of the country returned so splendid a result, its business was to increase the result by giving everybody who wanted land a chance to get it. At present the intending settler with very little else than a big heart and a big hope is generally forced to give up the idea of settling on the land. And the settlor "with a few pounds" may search millions of acres before he finds some that is "available." If Canada copied our land system it would close the big dominion against newcomers within a month.