In talking with officials as to just how this law worked, I asked them to give me a typical case. Here is the story of what happened when the government took over the bulk of an estate of more than eighty thousand acres. The tract belonged to a man who had bought a large part of it more than half a century before, paying about one dollar an acre. Much of it was rich farm land, but it was being used mostly for sheep raising. For tax purposes, the land had been valued at a million and a half, which the owner claimed was two hundred thousand dollars too high. When the authorities wanted to buy his land for settlers, he refused to sell an acre, and the government thereupon took possession.
The question of the value of the property was referred to the Court of Assessment. The owner was finally allowed to retain the homestead and a reasonable amount of the land adjoining, and the government was empowered to take the rest, paying the owner the amount of the assessed valuation. The land officials then resurveyed the estate and divided it into farms of three hundred and twenty acres or less. They laid out a town site and three village sites and built a railroad across the property. They spent about three hundred thousand dollars in developing the tract before opening it up to settlers.
The lands were rapidly taken on the usual government terms, and at the end of six years, instead of being a big sheep run, the estate was made up of productive small farms. Land formerly used for grazing was yielding forty-five bushels of wheat to the acre and there were eleven thousand acres of it in English grass. Under intensive cultivation more wool and mutton were being shipped from the estate than when it was all devoted to sheep. In the neighbourhood of fifty thousand sheep and lambs were exported from it annually. When the government took that estate the employees upon it numbered something like a score. Under the new arrangement the same area supported more than twelve hundred people and was spotted with pretty farm homes and school houses.
Within twenty years after Seddon came into power the number of farms in New Zealand had doubled and the population had grown from six hundred and thirty-four thousand to more than a million. As Seddon once said, “land formerly used to raise only sheep was turned to raising men.”
Though the government had arbitrary power to take almost any lands it wanted, the number of forced sales was not very large. The presence of the law on the statute books and the realization that the government meant business resulted in offers of great tracts of land for sale. Almost every year nearly twice as much land was offered to the government as it was prepared to buy, and it was thus able to pick and choose such lands as were best suited by location and quality for settlement. Usually, also, there were more applicants for land than there were farms available for sale, so that the government was in position to award the lands to those who seemed most likely to make successful farmers.
Under the present laws an applicant may take up land with the right to purchase on a renewable lease. He must be at least seventeen years of age, and must want the land solely for his own use. Including the land for which he makes application, he must not own anywhere in New Zealand more than five thousand acres. For allotment purposes, every acre of first-class land is counted as seven and a half acres; every acre of second-class land as two and a half acres, and every acre of third-class land as one acre. No applicant is allotted more land than the officials think he can properly care for, and all prospective settlers must pass an examination as to their qualifications. Veterans of the World War are allowed to acquire land on especially easy terms, and more than eight thousand former New Zealand soldiers took up farms within five years after the troops returned home.
The government still has about 4,500,000 acres of which about 400,000 acres are suitable for settlers. Most of the remainder is rough land, not available for farming. About 150,000 acres are disposed of each year, and the land department reports a profit of more than $250,000 a year on its operations. It has loaned more than $100,000,000 to 50,000 settlers, and about half of this sum has been paid back. In the meantime, the area under active cultivation has enormously increased. Out of a total of 48,000,000 acres in New Zealand suitable for farms and pasturage all but 5,000,000 acres are now occupied, and more than 17,000,000 acres have been seeded, either with crops or for pasture.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE WOMEN OF THE DOMINION
NEW ZEALAND was the first country in the world to give women the vote. At first they were not eligible for election to Parliament, but later this bar was removed. New Zealand claims also that she had the first woman mayor. This was a Mrs. Yates, of Onehunga, a small town near Auckland. On the death of her husband, who had been the mayor, she was elected to fill his place, and I understand she handled her job very well.