GET ON THE LAND!

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9590, 9 September 1909, Page 3

GET ON THE LAND!

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT ARE DOING,

i The Hon. D. Budrio, Acting-Min- | ister for Lands, was a passenger as 1 far hs Marton by Tuesday morning's § Mam Trunk express, going from S thence to Wanganui. In the course | of an interview with a representative I of the Feilding "Satr," he furnished 1 some interesting information in re- ! gard to the progress of land settle- | ment. During the hist three years 1 —the only years suitable for com- | parison, owing to the change of | tenure—the amount of land taken i up under the optional conditions I suitable for small settlement averag- | ed 533,000 acres per annum, indepen ■ § dent of land let for pastoral runs, | which averaged 367,0u0 acres, a | third of which was probably only | re-letting, not new settlement, giv--9 ing a total average per year of three--1 quarters of a million acres of land. S The exact figures showing the number i of settlers and area (apart from § pastoral runs) are 8 : Settlers. Acres. S 1906-7 r'g'Siv. T. 1-<377 j " 463,000 I 1907-8 1,723 640,000 | 1908-9 ''] i" 2,047 ' 495,000 ~ A t~tiTjTTaleJthe land available for what may be called close settlement would soon be very small, and reliance would have to tie placed on land purchased from the Natives or pakehas under the land for Settlement Act. At present the total area of land being prepared for settlement in the North Island was 231,000 acres, distributed as follows in the provincial : districts I*, Acres. Auckland 129.121 Hawkfi's Bay] 37,990 Turanaki 39.436 Wellington 1 * 24,497

,-KSo small .settlement* ,wns concerned, the demand exceeded the J supply; indeed for choice blocks it was very much so, especially when there was easy .access by road or railway. Pastoral lands did not go off so fast, and sometimes runs were open for application for some considerable time before being taken up. This was only natural, as the greater number of the applicants only had very small capital, and the large runs could not be worked without considerable means. The ureater proportion of the pastoral lands was in the South Island, although the North Island land was available under pastoral lease conditions. It was evident that Crown lands settlement is as popular now as it ever had b6en.'^Ss«j!»-n , , Taking the Auckland district especially, Mr Buddo said that the 1 block between RauHmu and Otoro- , hanga was specially suitable for small holdings, and h'o,ooo acres of it would be cue up into one to two < hundred acre sections. A number , of small holdings would be available in the Te Akau block, and this month 13,000 acres of it would be < open tor settlement under the , optional system, and 30,000 acres under Dinal! farm settlement conditions. In March next, he expected < to have 15,000 to 25,000 acres of < the Piako swamp, especially suitable for dairy farming, open for settlement, while 13,000,000 acres of Native land, recommended for settlement by the Maori Councils, had been placed in the hands o the Departi?;ent for survev. Some curiosity has been evinced as to the improved farm settlements, and Mr Buddo stated that applications for these lands wore pouring m at a great rate, probably owing to the easy conditions. Selectors were allowed £2 per acre up to 50 acres for clearing their land, and £SO for building and fencing, during the first twelve months. These amounts* were capitalised on the value of the land. No rent was payable for the first eighteen months, or practically for twenty-one months from the date of selection, and there was no power to transfer until the first rent was paid and the title issued. The total aroa being offered under this s.vscern at once was 65,000 acres in the Auckland, Wellington districts. Tha Minister said the conditions named should be sufficient to ensure good settlement and to enable settlers to tide over the first year of occupancy. In one block of 33,000 acres over 10,000 was spent in making the main roads.

The land offered under this system in the Ratirimu-Otorohanga block was mostly fern land, in Wellington district bush land, and in Taranaki partly bush and partly open land.