CAN FARMERS PAY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1932, Page 8

CAN FARMERS PAY?

HELP FOR NEW SETTLERS. CRITICISM AT WANGANUI. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WANGANUI, this day. During a lengthy discussion at a meeting of unemployed this morning it was stated that very few farmers in the Wanganui district were paying anything towards men employed imder the "over the fence" scheme. Mr. A. Halligan, chairman, said people in the cities were "paying the piper." It was all moonshine for a lot of farmers to say they had nothing and could pay nothing. Most of them could help in some way to carry out the scheme. If a farmer had nothing then it was a waste of money to put a man over the fence; for, after the work was done the farm would go back again through neglect. Mr. Halligan .instanced a lot of gorsecutting, where farmers had no intention of keeping the land clear. The city council was planning a scheme which would absorb practically all the men registered as out of work, and, if the scheme came to maturity there would then bo a regular scramble among farmers to get men.

Another member instanced a case where a married man with four children went out to work on the farm. The house was devoid of all conveniences, the windows were broken, there were no doorknobs, boards were missing from the floor, and water had to be brought by sledge for a quarter of a mile.