LAND SETTLEMENT

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 215, 11 October 1929, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

With one exception the Iater stages of the debate 011 the Land Laws .Amendnaent Bill consisttd of a wrangle in connection with the board the Government proposes to appoint to administer the Act if it becomeg one — as it certainly will. The ^ exception was found in a suggpstioh by the member for Awarua ( Eeform ) that the Government should concentrate upon the purchase of the larger private estates. It is to be noted that this suggestion met with little support, a favourable sign if we are to consider the welfare of the country rather than the profits to be expeced by those in the trade of selling land to the State for subdivision. The history of this trade prov'ides an appalling record. Without going fui-ther baek than the last two deeades the country has been made to suffer a loss Of over twenty millions. This has to be met by the • taxpayer, in this, as in all oases, the consumer. A wag once said that "money is never lost, because if it goes out of one pocket it finds its wa.y into another." On that basis into whose pocket kas gone the immense amount of money lost by the State owing to the past policy of buying private estates, With results that suggest either almost incredible incompetence or so'mething much worse? The answer to this is, into the pockets of the fortnnate vendors. It will be noted with considerable pleasure that the mefits of the Government proposals for developing land already the property of the State are now recognised by the leader of the "Beform" Party. During the debate he admitted that although the Government might have to spend at the fate of £5 per acre in developing Orowfi. lands, that would be good. business - if thereby the productivity of the countfy were increased. If in this Mr Goates represents the party of which he is the leader the prospect is cheering. The purchase of large private estates for subdivisiofi has not added to the productivity of the country. There are doubtless cases in which such subdivision, by adding to the number of cultivators of the land, has really increased production, but as against these are to be ranged the large number of cases in which private estates purchased at very high prices have not been odcupied at all, but have remained, and still remain, the property of the State and have had to be "wfiittefi ddwn" on the Land Department's bdoks. We quite recently gave examples of this in which the "writing down" stood for Over 60 per cent. of the price paid. Sonie of the eriticism directed against the eonstitution of the proposed board was on sound lines. It pointed out that the Minister couid be ontvoted by a committee Of civil servants, and urged that the Minister should be in fact, as well as in theory, the dominating headT.o obviate ihe possibility of the Minister being voted down by a few civil servants it was suggested that he should not be a member of the board, and that this. should be purely an advisory body. The flood of talk revolved around one issue — - whethet the Minister should be suprcme or whether he cOuld be over-ridden by the board. Those who urged that the Minister should be supfeme contended that he should not be a member of that body, and on the whole supporters of this view made out a fair case. The Minister himself remained firm in oontending that he ought to be an actual member of the bOard. His view was that it was not looking at the matter in a reasofiable light to ufge that the board w'ould deliberately set itself to thwart the Ministerial plans. Of course, considerable weight has to be conceded to this generalisation, and, on the whole, we are inclined to think that the board as ultimately constituted will not pi'ove a stumbling block in the way of a reasonable administration of the sdlieme aS devised by the bill. Appafently recognising this, the Ho'use, in the end, manifested approval of a suggestion by the Minister— that the board should comhst of himselfj the Under-Sec-retary for Lands, tlie permanent head of the Agricultural Depai'tment, anrl ohe "praGtieal man." It woiild be intereSting to know the reason for the inclusion of the phrase placed between inverted commas. The* Minister, as is Well known," is ong of the best type of pracficai men from the poifit Of riew of the discussion. He is a successful farmer. Ought we not lo be obliged to conclude that the Minister for Lands is a practical man? And also the permanent head , of the Agricultural Departmeiit? If , othei'wise, if they are but sqtiaro j pegs in rolind holes, hOw did they[( i ,

come' to be in their present positions? Leaving for the mornent considerations arising out of this aspect of the case, the general piiblic will be glad to learn that the main object of Ihe bill will be endorsed by the House. This is that the old and ruinous polic'y pf buying private estates for subdivision is to be to a large extent abandoned, and that land already owned by the Crown is to be brought into productivity.