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Land development by Government 1945-69
Authors
Date
1971
Type
Monograph
Collections
Abstract
From the earliest European settlement in New Zealand the
wealth of the country has depended heavily upon agriculture. With
a lack of useful mineral resources, small population, isolation
from markets, moist temperate climate and relative abundance of
land, the country's comparative advantage in international trade
has centred on the production of bulky, low cost agricultural
products. That this is still true is illustrated by the National
Development Conference's Targets Committee projecting that over
50 per cent of the increased exports necessary for the country's
continued economic growth is to come from agriculture; the sector
already providing over 75 per cent of the country's exports.
Although the major proportion of these exports is to come from the
intensification of existing farms, a considerable increment of
output will be contributed by the Government continuing its current
level of operations in developing farms from existing agriculturally
unproductive land.
It is not the aim of this study to see whether or not the
Government should extend or contract these activities. The aim
of the study is rather to review past operations in this field to
establish a sound base for an intelligent analysis of this particular
activity of Government in New Zealand. In this study an attempt was made to ascertain the costs
and profitability of creating new farms from New Zealand's
agriculturally unproductive land. This form of land development
is considered as an alternative to land development on existing
farms as a means of increasing agricultural production. In this research
project the author has analysed all the completed
long-term agricultural development projects undertaken by the
Lands and Survey Department since the war and assessed their
profitability in terms of present values and the internal rate
of return.