The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1926. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 November 1926, Page 8

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1926. LAND SETTLEMENT.

The promoters of the conference on land settlement, which was held at Auckland on Tuesday, were probably influenced by the view that, as the Royal Show was being held there, the presence of a large body of people interested in land problems made the opportunity for discussing those problems too valuable to be passed over. The presence of three Cabinet Ministers and several high officials helped to confer on the gathering a sense of the importance of the subject, and, as some thirty or forty speeches were made,' it would seem little had been left unsaid that would throw light upon the matter. The two main points brought forward appear to relate (1) to the conditions which are preventing the profitable occupation of land now being farmed; (2) the conditions whereby the settlement of undeveloped land are being retarded. It was to the discovery of means whereby these conditions can be remedied that the conference devoted its attention. So much has been said and so many inquiries have been made into land settlement matters that it hardly seems possible to bring to light any new phase of the subject, or to advance any fresh suggestions for solving the most important of the problems arising put of the insistent demand for more production. It is, therefore, satisfactory to note that the Minister for Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod), while announcing that the Government will welcome any inquiry into land settlement, will set its face against any large expenditure involved in a committee travelling about the country. At the same time the Government will gladly accept suggestions for the personnel of a committee of inquiry, provided the nominees is made up of representative farmers and Government appointees. While it seems quite clear that there already exists ample testimony, as well as expert views, as to the two points—and others —whereon the conference concentrated, the Minister, in face of the resolution passed by the conference, could not discourage any further inquiry desired by the farming community, inasmuch as the Government is at least equally concerned over’the solution of the outstanding problems discussed by the conference. The inquiry

agreed upon can do no harm, but it should inflict no financial burden on the country, those interested giving their services and defraying the expenses. The Government has already taken action, after exhaustive testimony of every pertinent nature, on several important phases connected with land settlement—readjustment of values, restoration of deteriorated holdings, making hill country productive, providing several aids for struggling settlers, conducting experiments on poor areas, cheapening fertilisers, and in other ways affording assistane eto men on the land. There only seems to be the question of cutting up large estates, suitable for the purpose, remaining to be dealt with, and admittedly this is a problem so beset with difficulties that only a dictator of the Mussolini type could be expected to settle the matter by a stroke of the pen. There is so little land left to be offered for settlement, with a reasonable prospect of giving a satisfactory return for the cost of bringing it into productivity, that subdivision and closer settlement appear to be the only means of solving that phase of the problem of greater production. Painful experience is proving to the men on the land that the laws of political economy are inexorable and that market values of produce are a deciding factor in the margin between the cost of production and the price which the produce returns. Whether the committee set up by the conference will be able to be of much practicable service remains to be seen, but it will be as well not to be too sanguine.