SMALL FARMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 87, 13 April 1933, Page 12

SMALL FARMS.

SETTLING WORKLESS

"MAIN ITEM " OF POLICY.

MR. COATES' CONFIDENCE.

(By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.")

WELLINGTON", this day.

"The placing of suitable families on the land, under the small farms plan, is a main item in the Government's attack on unemployment," declared the Right. Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister of Finance, to-day. The Minister added that, the plan was initiated last year, largely in an experimental and tentative way, but the results of the experience had been most gratifying. Under the so-called ten-acre scheme 750 families had been placed on the land or were in course of taking up their sections. All, or practically all, had little or no capital, yet the reports showed that, with scarcely an exception, the people were doing well in their new surroundings and were completely satisfied. "The experience to date," said the Minister, "certainly shows the possibility of settling families on more limited areas of land than is widely supposed to be the necessary minimum area, of some hundreds of acres." The email farm was distinct and different from land settlement as ordinarily understood. The emphasis was on assisting the unemployed who were anxious to make a start on the land. The Government's policy would assist those who were already on the land, particularly those—and there were many—who were burdened with more land than they could effectively handle. "Conditions Will Not Last." "It happens that at the moment," said Mr. Coates, "the markets for most of our products are in a depressed and unsettled state. But these discouraging conditions will not last. Despite all the talk and the fears of 'surpluses' and socalled over-production, it is clear that the people of the world stand in need of more of the products than we can supply. Dislocation of trade, the failure in buying-ability where needs are pressing, stand in the way of the proper utilisation of foodstuffs and other supplies. This cannot be other than a temporary condition. "Out of our difficulties and the necessities of to-day, ways and means will be found for putting into good use the commodities which we can produce and which the world requires. Prices cannot and will not remain at the present low and unremunerative levels. There is in the present marketing situation, disheartening though it is at the moment, no reason for our slackening in the proper development of our country's resources, and if due appreciation is given to the factor of cost of establishing men on the land, no time could be more opportune than the present."