WORK FOR 500.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 11

WORK FOR 500.

ABANDONED LANDS.

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL.

PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT.

(By ' Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

The Minister of Lands, Sir Alfred Ransom, to-day announced a scheme for the utilisation of a large number of unemployed who will be permanently taken off the register. They will be employed in developing a number of abandoned Crown sections, subject to State securities, which can be profitably developed if labour and supervision costs are not loaded on to the land. The areas to be taken In hand are in the middle of the Xorth Island in the Kawhia, Otorohanga, Waitonio, Ohura, Taumarunui, Waimarino and Kaitieke Counties.. The development of these areas and the provision of adequate road access will provide immediate employment for 500 men, a number which can within six months be increased to 1000 or 1500. The securities in question, said the Minister, were deteriorating, and it would be only a matter of time before the Crown's interest would vanish unless action was taken. The lands would bo reconditioned by unemployed labour, the Small Farms Board finding the capital costs for materials, etc. The work would be controlled by the Public Works Department and the farming operations by a Small Farms Board officer. 'As the scheme proceeded, said the Minister, they could arransre to take over other doubtful securities from the Mortgage Corporation.