The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1912. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 293, 7 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1912. LAND SETTLEMENT.

The splendid exhibit of produce at the Winter Show provides still one more emphatic endorsement of the value of land settlement. If this country is to progress at the rate that it should in view of its enormous fertility and its immense natural resources, it must devote attention to closer and more scientific farming, in order that the very best may be made of its broad and prolific acres. The Government that can contrive to make two blades of grass grow where one grew originally is the Government that will have settled the problem of city congestion for all time, and will have little difficulty in retaining the confidence of the people. But this desirable ond will not be best achieved by the subdivision of small areas over limited districts and leaving the large estates in other parts of the country at the mercy of the large squatters and their countless herds of sheep and cattle, to the exclusion of the small settler, who is content with a comparatively modest pittance for himself and his family. The Prime Minister is wise to have placed the question of land settlement in the forefront of the policy of the Government, and if half his promises and proposals arc given efTect to we may look for a rapid advance in this direction during the next few years. At the moment the subject is of much greater importance than many of the industrial and social reforms foreshadowed in Mr. Mackenzie's recent policy speech. That the Prime Minister is not speaking idly is evidenced by the fact that at the present time there are 609,000 acres of land in rural districts being surveyed with a view to placing them immediately upon the market for application. The bulk of this land is in the Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Nelson districts, most of which, it is stated, is eminently suitable for close farming. There is a further area of Crown Land advertised for application in the Crown Land Guide of 1,191,800 acres, the bulk of which is in the Westff? 1- * 1 * districts, which

tities where close farming settlement is concerned. It is evident, therefore, that there is no lack of land for those who are prepared to face the incidental discomforts pertaining to its occupation. But it will not do for the Government to resume land for settlement with one hand, and allow the segregation of large estates with the other. Tiiat this is no idle bogey is evidenced by a recent article in the New Zealand Times, which quotes several very significant instances of the accumulation of estates. "Twenty-three years ago," says our contemporary, "there lived in a certain district in the North Island a young gentleman and 27 farmers and their families. After 17 years the 27 farmers and their families had disappeared, and I the young gentleman remained in opulent possession of all their holdings. Shortly after he started to lay up for, himself a store of riches and other men's farms. The capital value of his holding was £BSBO and the unimproved valu* £BSBO. This was in 1897, when he had 1748 acres. Last year he had 8631 acres. The respective values were then £l<M,lOO and £71,744. The unimproved value had jumped from £2 9s 3d to £8 8s 2d an acre, or about 350 per cent. Some of this land has been disposed of lately at £2O, £39 and £4O an acre." Nor is this an isolated case, for tka Times proceeds to quote the cases of twelve farmers, who had holdings of the following areas:—2oo, 200, 600, 136, 300, 104, 775, 233, 640, 600, 640 and 520 acres. Big and little, all were consolidated by an enterprising individual, and the holding to-day is one of 4552 acres. It is satisfactory to know, therefore, that the Government intends to take every precaution to stop any such further aggregations, which result only in an undue inflation of land values at the expense of increasing population. One of the earliest steps to be taken in this connection is the purchase by the Government of freeholds adjoining Crown leaseholds which may be suitable for settlement. It is a difficult matter, of course, under existing legislation, to prevent small farms becoming large ones, but the application of a limitation of area, not necessarily retrospective, as is done in connection with Crown leases, would meet the difficulty. Such a limitation would enormously increase the prospects of the dairying industry in particular, and other industries in general. Another satisfactory feature of the Government's land proposals is Mr. Mackenzie's avowed determination to have the large areas of native lands put into useful operation, either by the Maoris themselves or by willing and capable holders who will farm them properly. The whole question is one of immense importance to the Dominion, and it is one in which the welfare of the many must count before the wishes of the few. If the Government approaches the question in a fair and progressive spirit, it should have no difficulty whatever in securing the support and cooperation of a majority in Parliament. In the matter of making the desert blossom there should be no such thing as party polities.