SMALL FARM PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 97, 27 April 1933, Page 23

SMALL FARM PLAN.

The night Hon. J. G. Coates has never claimed to be the author of the Small Farms Act, although some people insist upon giving him the credit. The history of the Small Farms Act is as follows: Last November Mr. Coates called together an important conference of Cabinet Ministers, under-secretaries and other public officials for the purpose of working out a land settlement scheme, which would substantially relieve unemployment. A land settlement unemployment relief scheme, conceived by the writer (vide Auckland "Star," September 29, 1931), was submitted to the conference. . This scheme was based on the following five points: (1) Utilising privately-owned surplus lands as separate farms, by now settlers without capital; (2) the settling of unemployed men on individual holdings, by the State, without the obligation of purchasing the land; (3) the tenure to be a ten.years' lease, with the right of purchase direct from owner to tenant; (4) money to be advanced by the State to the tenant for the purpose of building, fencing, grassing and stocking; (5) the payment to the tenant of unemployment relief wages until the farm becomes self-supporting. If these five cardinal principles were taken out of the Small Farms Act, there would be no Act left. C. M. DOWD.