LAND SETTLEMENT.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 12, 4 June 1920, Page 15

LAND SETTLEMENT.

THE MINLSTER'S POLICY. POSITION OF THE SOLDIER. CROWN AREAS AVADLABLE. A statement concerning land settlement in special relation to ihe settlement of soldiers has been made by the Minister for Lands, the Hon. D. H. Guthrie. "It is generally known," he said, "that the Government has had to slow up on the soldiers' land settlement scheme owing to having spent all but a comparatively small amount of the money authorised by Parliament. It will- surprise most people to learn that the Government has spent on the settlement and repatriation of soldiers in New Zealand no less a sum than £ 19,000,000. Settlement has not absolutely ceased, but, as has been stated, the speed has had to be slackened." Mr Guthrie made some reference also to the operation of the clauses of the Acts of the past two sessions dealing with. aggregation. "What we are coming down to now in the way of land settlement," said Mr Guthrie, "is the settlement of the purchased lands we have on hand, and the Crown lands which we have not been able to hring under settlement, owing to the absence of surveyors and engineers. We have a number of blocks that are already for settlement except for roading. We cannot give them to soldiers until the roading has been done, and we have not been able to get the roading *done because of the- shortage of the officers I have mentioned, also the lack of public works men. ABOUT 700,000 ACRES AVAILABLE. "We have at the present time available for settlement about 700,000 acres. This land will carry from 1200 to 1400 men. The land is of "varying descriptions, and will be suitable for all kinds of farming. It is spread over practieally the whole of both islands of New ZeaJai. ■!. A large area of bush land is in the north of Auckland, and it is of such a charcter that it is well worth the attention of the Government and the returned soldier. . "These figures do not take into account any of the so-called pumice lands in the iriterior of the North Island, for which special provision was made in the legisla-

tion of last season. Nothing definite has been done about the settlement of this land, We are now- raising the reaervations from a large number of blocks , of land, with the object of throwing them open for settlement under the homestead tenure, which was revived in a more attractive form by the legislation of last session. One great bar to the opening of this land is that a large quantity of it is national endowment land, and it will have to be dealt with by Parliament before we can ehgage in any large scale on scheme for the development of it." A CHECK ON AGGREGATION. Mr Guthrie was emphatic in his statement that the eff ect of the anti-aggrega-tion clauses of his Acts of 1918 and 1919, had besn important. "There has been," said the Minister, "an evident unloading oi land from large properties, and there ; have been but few cases brought to the i notice of the Government where there have been increases of areas. In these cases ihe increases are always arranged so as not to come within the scope of the aggregation clauses. Commonly this is done by the purchases being made in the name of another member of the family. | This device, however, will not in all circumstances prove to be a complete escape from the operation of ihe law. I am convinced, indeed I have evidence, that the cutting up of estates that has been going on recently can be attributed to the effect of the aggregation clauses now on the Statute Book, but it is fair to say that soms of the case may be attributed to the high prices now ruling for land. I am glad to say that the experience of the Government has been happy in respect to these offers of land for sale, for we , have had land offered to us by largq landowners for returrtpd soldiers at prices which in some • instances were £10 per acre less than private- buyers did subsequently pay for the land. Even at the prices offered the Government had to decide against placing soldiers upon land at such excessively high values."