THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1908. THE LOCKED-UP LAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3020, 17 October 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1908. THE LOCKED-UP LAND.

That the settlement of the land is the fundamental basis of our prosperity as of our progress is an axiom which will hardly be questioned by those who have any idea of social and industrial organisation. It is, therefore, supremely disappointing to be officially informed in the last annual report of the Department of Agriculture that the returns collected in Oetober last show that the number of holdings over one acre in extent had only increased by 1,029 since the previous year. Although the area under cultivation had increased by 515,514, the acreage in occupation had only increased by 155,805 acres, a result which constitutes as grave an indictment of our present system of land administration as it testifies to the stranuousness of our settlers. It will be seen that while those whom our extraordinary methods permit to obtain access to the land are tireless in the work of turning the wilderness into farm, and of winning from cultivated land the wealth which keeps the towna alive and fills Uiq

' whole country with the hum of prosperous industry, the Government puts no such energy into its duty of making it as easy as possible for land-seekers and settlers to get to work. For we have still in New Zealand something like twenty million acres ot idle land, generally adapted to settlement and capable of giving golden returns if unlocked in the interest of settlement. But Crown Lands and Maori Lands are still treated by the Government as though a rare favour would be conferred upon the settler were they freely opened to him, wherea3 the truth is that the settler who goes into the bush and creates a farm confers upon the whole nation the greatest benefit which a man can confer upon his fellowmen. So far from there being any debt due from the settler to the State it is the State that owes a debt to the settler, a debt which ! can only be discharge J if it smoothes in every possible manner his always arduous path, and not only assists him to acquire land, but provides for him means of communication when he has obtained a holding. The "New Zealand Herald" in discussing the question of locked-up land says:—We are not greatly concerned about forms of tenure, so long as the form is one which is satisfactory to the settler and the agriculturist, but we are concerned for the settlement of the country, and for the increased production of wealth, for the very good reason that if settlement is impeded and production checked our national prosperity must naturally and inevitably suffer. Every man who wants constant employment at good wages is interested in the encouragement of land settlement, as well as every man who seeks to keep his business upon a satisfactory footing. Already our prosperity has suffered a check, and will suffer a great deal more if we are to have a continuation of the extraordinary policy by which only 155,000 acres were brought under occupation during a whole Departmental year.