THE LAND POLICY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3221, 19 June 1909, Page 3

THE LAND POLICY.

"OPEN UF IDLE AREAS!" CANADIAN FARMER'S ADVICE SOME STRAIGiTf TALK. "The best poilcy. and the only land policy for your Dominion Government, is to open up the areas now lying idle througi-.oi.it the North Island," said Mr W. Carew, a Canadian farmer who has come to New Zealand to take up kmd, speaking to an Auckland "Herald" repesentative "I was farming on the Saskatchewan, north of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and did very well too, but relatives have induced me to come here, and I have spent several months looking round for a place to suit No, I'm not going back to Canada," he continued: "I like this country, and I see possibilities in it for up-to-date farming." There could be not the slightest doubt that the proper economic policy for the-Gcvernment to undertake was one which made for the most rapid settlement of the land; "Why," he said, "look at the millions of acres you have here, locked up under an absurd systeui of native ownership! What a screaming farce any policy is which seeks to do other than open up land when farmers are willing to go on it. It's just the same as if I put all my seed oats and wheat in a granary and kept them there year after year, refusing to sow them because I might want them at some future time. That any Government in the world could seriously do what the New Zealand Government is doing positively staggers me, and that the people of a .country should allow a Government to do it staggers me some more. Then your Labour Department solemnly announces that building is slack, that engineering trades are slack that clothing trades are slack, and that there is no demand for farm labour! Of course they're slack; w'hat else could they be but slack if you don't open up your lands? The slackness of these trades points to one obvious conclusion; never mind about your temporary depression and all that, the conclusion is that your cities and your artisan classes have been steadily growing and growing, and land settlement hasn't been keeping pace, and so you reach the stage when the check automatically pulls you up. The farmer works for all, and he is ready to work for all, and you won't let him. Yet they call this a country of advanced legisaltion!"

When the question of form of tenure was raised, Mr Carew replied thht nothing else than the freehold would suit him, and he had the cash to purchase with, and had two or three places in view. The optional 1 system to enable the nian without capital to ultimately owrr his farm, ! was the best system in the world, and he wouldn't take a native lease unless he got it for nothing. He hoped the good sense of the people would come to the rescue, and forbid any system of native landlordry. "Much as I admire the Maoris," he said, "I'd sooner leave a 'country than be a tenant of a native. Those millions of acres of Maori land should be opened to European settlement on the optional system, after sufficient has been set aside for the use of the natives themselves. The Maoris : can't use all that land, nor one half jof it, so why wait any longer? Here I you have a magnificent opportunity | of making the North Island a thickly (populated territory, with a, great, ! busy farming community pouring wealth into your cities and your Government coffers, increasing your North Island exports tenfold, employing all artisan classes and many more, crowding a busy traffic on to your railways, attracting a gi'eater fleet of mercantile shipping to your wonderI ful harbour, exporting twenty times j the present output of butter and frozen meat, and yet the Government lets the golden opportunity pass it by. I have been down at Kawhia. What a wonderful trade gateway that harbour might be! it could be one of the centres of the Dominion, and yet it is given over to silence by reason of the areas of native land around it. We call Vancouver the 'Sunset Doorway,'so well storiad in Service's poems, and Kawhia would be your Sunset Doorway if you would only let it. This country has glorious possibilities. The climatic conditions of Auckland should produce for it a rich harvest of wine and oil. I met a maj) in North Auckland who jailed it poor country, I should say to him, Poor man! The gum lands are only poor because they are not used. Dense cultivation under orchard would make the gum areas return some of the richest harvests ever known in your country. How such a monstrous, such a preposterous, idea could be held as was voiced by one of the responsible Ministers of the Crown on Saturday is beyond comprehension. Well might the 'Herald' remark that over the best lands is posted the stupefying notice, 'No admission,' and ask what is the Government land policy. From present appearances I should call it policy of absolute stagnation. I would use stronger words, but I doubt if you would print thorn."

The Ministerial description of a freeholder as a criminal was pointed out to Mr Carew, who replied that a more blazing piece of impudence he had never in is life. The demand was for small holdings, and the Government could put the native and Crown lauds into small holdings, and it was the farmer who bore the burden of State. The question affected the whole social and industrial life of the country, and if the Government of New Zealand would not open up the idle lands, then it was to the interest of every town worker of whatever calling, to the interest of every country worker of whatever calling, to rise upjand throw that Government out for one that was able to see beyond its own nose." "Yes," said Mr Carew, in reply to another question, "I'm content to stay here. I don't tnink much of a Government which allows farmers with capital to go to Queensland, but I am able to secure ths 'and I want, and I intend u settle down here. I would like to tell you that the possibilities of this province of Aucklai d in fruit growing, in the production of honey, in the growing of onions, in the hundred and one varieties of products of dense cultivation, have scarcely been touched. Why, in grapes abne there should be termendous possibilities. ¥A man could, for instance, make a living by growing nothing else than a few acres, of

sunflowers for the oil in the seeds, and putting one or two acres in good roses for the local market. The small things which return rich profit are neglected here. The solution that New Zealand is looking for is so painfully apparent. Open up your idle lands—open them up right away, and your country will be a great one, and a wealthy one, finding employment for all your people and thousands and thousands more."