THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1908. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3022, 20 October 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1908. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

The settlement of the unoccupied land in the Dominion and the bringing into more productive use of the land already in occupation, is a question 6f vital importance nt the present time. If the Dominion is to remain prosperous, the volume of trade must be increased. We cannot control the price of wool in Bradford, the price of butter in London, the price of gum in New York, the price of mutton in Liverpool. But we can steadily increase the export of wooi and butter and of mutton so that even falling prices will not disastrously affect the prosperity of the country, and so that every recovery of prices reinvigorates our industrial life. All that is needed for the increase of production is that the Government should put the requisite energy into the opening up of the land to settlers, and into the construction of the roads and railways which will enable the settler to send

his produce to market. Though the Government recognise this fact they neglect to act. The greatest area of idle land suitable for settlement purposes is to be found in the North Island, yet the Government take no action to throw open millions of locked-up acres. In dealing with this subject in a leading article, the "New Zealand Herald" says that the North has now the greater population, has become the great producing island, and has by far the most promise, so that in the interests of the entire Dominion the Government ought to radically change its policy and exert itself on behalf of that Northern settlement by which alone the volume of production can be swiftly and certainly increased. To do this, those portfolios which directly affect settlement ought to be in the hands of Northern representatives, and the opportunity for reconstruction afforded by the retirement of Mr Hall-Jones to the High Commissionership should he taken. The great spending Departments at present are all in Southern hands. Mr Fowlds is Minister for Education, Mr McGowan Minister for Justice, Mr Carroll Minister for Native Affairs; but Northern men should control the Land and the Railway Departments, whatever happened to the minor portfolios. Not until this is done can we expect to have a vigorous settlement policy. That the North has a right to this share in Departmental control must be acknowledged even by the staunchest partisan of the Administration. During the ten years from 1896 to 1906 the North Island increased by 136,000 persons, and the South by only 49,000 persons, yet the railway mileage in the South increased during the decade by 276 miles, and in the North by only 186 miles. The North has now nearly 100,000 more people than the South, yet there are five miles of railway in the South for every three in the North; the adjustment of the inequality would enable our Northern lands to be comfortably settled, if the Government would unlock them.