THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1911. LAND SETTLEMENT FINANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10414, 7 September 1911, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1911. LAND SETTLEMENT FINANCE.

Wlhien .the Land Settlement Finance Act was placed lupon the Statute Book, it wuus. hoped that a partial solution' had ibeen found to the complex question of land settlement, without the necessity for the exercising of the .compulsory clauses of the original Act. Thie .Finance Act wlas passed with the avowed object of affording private individuals, handed into ;amlafll tasmcrialtiions, the opportumditjy <of 'aoqaiirimg hJocks of iliand, subdividing them, and becoming permanent isettleris, the State taking la first imortgagie Iby advancing the purchase money, less a. five per cent, deposit. The provisions of the Act, if Oaberaly Binterpretted, are calculated ito give an impetus to closer 'settlement throughout Itlhle Domiindon. There da reason (to (think, (however, that the Department whlioh is (charged with the admimiis/tiriati'on. of the measure is aiot offering proper inducements to people tto avail itHilemiselves of its provisions. SeveralL attempts have 'been made to acquire, lands in the. Wairarapa for (settlement; hut these have resulted in (foiillure, ichiefly through obstacles placed in Ithe wta.y by the Department. Only recently a property containing 1600 acres' of land was offered tto an association of induistriouis settlers, who were prepared to pay interest upon, the money, and to effect the necessary improvements. .Officials of the Depairtmieimt .dame to .tine district, rode hurriedly over the property, and without can suiting any of the prospective settlers, declined the application for financial assistance, to the ground that the price asked for (the land was l too high. The land was isiubsequently sold to the isettlers at an enhanced price,, and there lis reason to think that it .will he profitahly occupied. Thlis case is mentiomed !to

elhow tQiiat tlie Department is* not offering that inducement to settlement which might reasonably be expected of it. It is, of course, right and proper that the Government should obtain ia fair security for the money it advances. Wlhen, however, settlers a<re prepared'to'make a reasonable deposit, and can. dhow that ithey are inn a position to effect improvements, the Department is adopting tan. arbitrary attitude' by refusing tlhe advances. If the Act is ifco be of tJiat value (to the Dominion which (the Legislature intended, it must bo (interpreted in, a businesslike manner, and with some islhow of liberality.