THE FARMLET SCHEME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 170, 20 July 1928, Page 13

THE FARMLET SCHEME.

A BASIS OF FINANCE

In his suggestion, which the Devonport Borough Council unanimously supported, for financing the cure of unemployment by farmlets, as already being investigated, Mr. T. Carr Enwright, an Auckland merchant, proposed that a fund for the preparation and equipment of these farmlets should be provided by means of a 1 per cent primage tax on imports. He pointed out that there was at present an existing 1 per cent primage tax collected by the Custom* Department, so that the additional J ner cent would cost no more to collect. He knew no other method of financing so equitable or simple. It would add only 2/- per ton to the cost of rice, or 10/to 30/- to the cost of a motor car, but it would raise £200,000 annually toward the abolition of unemployment. As the farmlets became self-supporting, the work could be extended, and the scheme would result in converting unskilled men into producers. The editor of the "Smallholder," the Civic League, and others had given the details of the farmlet scheme much thought and attention. But their difficulty had been financing it. He hoped his suggestion would solve that difficulty. The Selection of Farmlet Land. The Unemployed Absorption Farmlet Committee set up at the invitation of the Minister of Lands, meets the Land Commissioners of North and South Auckland this evening to discuss suitable territories.