GARDENS FOR UNEMPLOYED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 57, 8 March 1932, Page 6

GARDENS FOR UNEMPLOYED.

WHAT ENGLAND IS DOING

Tens of thousands of husbands and fathers in the South Wales coal fields and in Yorkshire, long unemployed owing to the closing down of mines and factories, have found new hope and work in the cultivating of small plots of land allotments (says a London message to the "Christian Science Monitor"). A report shows that last year 00,000 men were enabled to grow £400,000 worth of potatoes and other garden vegetables in this way. Unused railway ties are being cut up for fences. New use in keeping animals off cultivation has been found for iron posts and wire originally made for barbed entanglements in France. Thousands of acres of moorland previously grazed only by mountain sheep have been converted into productive gardens. "It means three shillings weekly in potatoes and other garden produce that must otherwise have been bought," was how one of the allotment holders described it as affecting his case.

But this is not all. It lias substituted toil for demoralising idleness and kept workers fit to take advantage of opportunity when it arises for resuming their previous occupations. All- this has not been accomplished without a great deal of organising, in which the Society of Friends has led the way. This body began operations in South Wales three years ago. Its example has been followed by numerous institutions elsewhere. The British Government has given assistance, but financial aid from this source has had to be discontinued owing to the necessity of economy. Public subscriptions have been opened to make up. The system pursued has aimed at restoring self-respect and of encouraging men to co-operate. Local allotment societies have been formed, to which each man helped is required to subscribe. Land has been made available and seed, tools and fertilisers have been distributed at such prices as have been found to be within the reach of those requiring them. The Society of Friends alone has distributed 1000 tons of potatoes, 12 tons of peat done up in pints and half-pint packets, besides 1,000,000 other parcels of smaller varieties of vegetable seeds.