LAND FOR SETTLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 96, 13 October 1911, Page 4

LAND FOR SETTLERS.

THE PURCHASE OF ESTATES. INFLATED VALUES. PREMIER'S IMPORTANT STATEMENT. Tn the House of Representatives the other afternoon an important statement was made by the Premier concerning the acquisition of land for settlement. Mr. Dillon (Ilawkc's Bay) asked ii the Government would acquire for closer settlement Mr. R. R. D. McLean's Mamckakaho estate. The question led to a general statement by the Prime Minister in regard to land purchase. ' 'Sir Joseph Wiird said he could not give nn offhand answer to the question put, because the Land Purchase Board would have to inquire into the matter, and see if the price was snch that the land could he profitably worked by those who would be likely to take it up. If a syndicate in the district was prepared to pay more than the land was worth, the Government would not take it. Such a thing had been done in Marlborough, and the syndicate had offered the land to the Government at many thousands of pounds less than they had purchased it for, but the. Government would not buy it. In the Hawke's Bay district, or any other district where land was offered at a fair price, the Government would obtain it, and they proposed to ask the House this session to give effect to an alteration in the law, whereby land could be obtained without having the country, swindled by enormous prices. There waa an effort being made on the part of large landowners to obtain a price for their lands from the country, altogether in excess of the value of the lands. The Government had tried different \vay«, and each time they had been defeated. The new system proposed would enable ' them to acquire lands at a fair value, and to take them compulsorily where necessary. They would pass that law this session, no matter how long it took them to do it.

Mr. Ross: For both Maori and European lands? Sir Joseph Ward: Yes; I' ask tlifr House to adopt it generally.

The Prime Minister added that the action he proposed to take would prevent those unfair statements that were being made as to the Government's want of sincerity. If Mr. McLean would offer his land at a price that the Land Purchase Board would agree to, the Government would take it, but they would not pay Mr. McLean or any other person £4 or £5 or £lO an acre more than the land was worth. The Leader of the Opposition had stated that he would advise his friends to ask three times the value of their land.

Mr. Massey (emphatically): That statement is not correct.

Sir Joseph Ward said that the hon. gentleman had made the statement at one of the committee meetings, Mr. Massey, in a personal explanation, said that his statement was preceded by a reference to a sentimental value attaching; to land. He mentioned his own farm, and! said tliat if the Government proposed to take it compulsiorily, and he believed he could save it by such an expedient, he would ask three times its value. He was strongly of opinion that the system of determining the value of land by arbitration was much better than the present one, which had superseded it by the Act of 1907. Mr. Massey expressed his doubts regarding the foundation of the complaints by the Government that land was not available for purchase for settlement at reasonable prices. He suggested that the Minister of Lands should table ft return showing the estates which had been offered to the Government during the past two years, and the prices asked. Mr. Massey ridiculed the statement that .€500,000 worth of land could not bo purchased at a fair price, and guaranteed that he could in one year purchase £2,000,000 worth at prices that would enable settlers to make a fair living. The Prime Minister asked whether Mr. Massey proposed to spend the whole of the £2,000,000 in one locality. Mr. Massey: Certainly not.

The Prime Minister said that in that case Mr. Massey must be carried off his feet by his imagination if he believed that so much land was available for settlement at a fair price. The Government had never purchased an estate at the price at which it was offered by the owners.

Mr. Massey: Will you give us a list of the estates offered?

The Prime Minister: I am prepared to consider the request. There are probably some people who would not liko their business made public.