A Maori School Of Farming Is Wanted For Bay Of Plenty

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 43, 26 September 1949, Page 5

A Maori School Of Farming Is Wanted For Bay Of Plenty

Wellington. Sept. 23

One of .the greatest problems as far as Maori land settlement was concerned was to get suitable Maori farmers on to the land, said Mr W. Sullivan (National, Bay of Plenty), in the House of Representatives, when the vote on the estimates for the Department of Maori Affairs was under discussion. Mr Sullivan said that there were 150,000 acres of Maori land in his electorate which could be developed, but there were insufficient young Maori farmers to put on the land. He thought that much of the land farmed by the department was being over-farmed while it was awaiting settlement. “What there should be in the Bay of Plenty-Rotorua area is a school of farming,” said Mr Sullivan.

He went on to say that the houses which were being built in that area were “quite good homes,’ and he would like to see the same type of house put on the newly-developed areas of land in an endeavour to get it settled and . into production. Mr Sullivan suggested that the Maori Affairs Department should endeavour to raise the butterfat production on farms under its control. A school of farming -would do much to' improve farming technique and would give the young Maori farmer confidence when he began his farming career. He also suggested that the competition for the Ahuwhenua Trophy had been responsible for a great deal of the improvement in Maori farming.