A "BURSTING-UP" POLICY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9136, 11 July 1908, Page 4

A "BURSTING-UP" POLICY.

A cablegram on Thursday stated that the Victorian Minister for Agriculture, referring to the heavy fallingoff in the export of agricultural products, said that no doubt the time was rapidly arriving when Ja policy of breaking up big estates for agricultural purposes -must be adopted. In a recent speech on the land question, the Minister said that the Go-

vernment could open up a million acres in the Maltee or the pine-ridgo eountry, but the provision of water, railways, and other facilities to production had to be undertaken, and here arose the original difficulty of enormous expense. Money would have to be borrowed for that. Was the Government compelled to settle people in the back-blocks while 5,500 people controlled two-thirds of the occupied lands of the State, and lands, too, mostly within a fair distance of railways? Was the Government compelled to drive settlers back to undergo the hardships and privations of developing the Mallee, to do pioneer work in the vast silent forests, and to break their hearts amongst the giant trees while 1,000 people owned 10J million acres? Was the Government to be compelled to maintain high freights on the railways and stand by while business was stagnaiing? Commerce was standing still while 195 people enjoyed 6h million acres in comparative ease and comfort.