SMALL FARMS ACT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20828, 11 April 1933, Page 10

SMALL FARMS ACT.

FORMALITIES COMPLETE. BOARD OF CONTROL SET UP. irfitdS ASSOCIATION TEI.F.t.K AM.) WELLINGTON, April 10. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) announced to-day the completion of the formalities giving effect to the Small Farms (Relief of Unemployment) Act. A committee of Ministers, namely the Minister for Lands, Agriculture, and Employment (the Hons. E. A. Ransom, C. E. Macmillan, and A. Hamilton) has been appointed, and the Minister for Lands will be in charge of the administration of the act. The following board has been appointed to control the small farm plan:—Mr W. Robertson, UnderSecretary of Lands, who will be chairman, Dr. R. M. Campbell, private secretary to the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Dr. A. H. Cockayne, Assistant-Director General of Agriculture, Mr J. S. Jessep, deputychairman of the Unemployment Board, and Mr G. E. Miller, deputysuperintendent of the State Advances Department. It is understood that already approximately 12,000 applications to take up land under the act have been received by the Government. VILLAGE SETTLEMENT. ENDOWMENT LAND LEASED. (I'RESS ASSOCIATION TJSI.ZiiItAM ) NAPIER, April 11. The Napier Harbour Board has approved a scheme under which the Government will lease 250 acres of the board's endowment lands for the purpose of creating a village settlement, giving homes to 45 families now dependent on relief. The Government will rent the land at a nominal figure, and will immediately put a large number of unemployed on to clear the area. The unemployed will then plough and sow the whole area, and will also undertake fencing, the planting of shelter-belts, the building of 45 small cottages, and sinking artesian wells. The whole cost will be borne by the Government, which will also provide livestock for the settlers, who will be balloted for among picked men. The names of the successful applicants will be removed from the unemployed register. It is intended to make 45 families, artisans or seasonal workers, entirely self-sup-porting. Comment by Mr Coates.

Mr Coates, commenting on the small farms plan, said the results of the experience of the last few months had been most gratifying. About 750 families had actually, been placed on the land or were in course of taking up their sections. These had little or no capital, yet with scarcely an exception, reports revealed that they were doing well and were completely satisfied. ExEerience certainly showed the possiility of settling families on more limited areas of land than the widely supposed necessary minimum area of some hundreds of acres. „ ~ At the moment, Mr Coates said, the markets for most of our products were in a depressed and unsettled state, but these discouraging conditions would not last. In spite of the talk of surpluses and socalled overproduction, it was clear that the people of the world stood in need of more products than wc could supply. In extending the small farm plan, particular attention was to be given to utilising exisiting services and the departments of the Government. The Lands Department would be directly responsible in the acquisition and disposal of land. Offers ofland might be made to the Lands Department, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Department's fields officers, as well as to the Department of Agriculture, whose ofncers would continue to be associated with the small farm plan. Applications by registered unemployed persons desirous of taking advantage of the small farm plan were to°be addressed as hitherto to the officer in charge of the Labour Department, or a certifying officer under the Unemployment Board.