Small Farms

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21180, 2 June 1934, Page 14

Small Farms

A fortnight ago, in the course of an enthusiastic review of the work of the Small Farms Board, the Minister for Lands, Mr Ransom, announced that he -\yas " in full " agreement that the land offers a "major opportunity of overcoming " the problem of unemployment." When " The Press " pointed out that the scope for state-aided land

settlement schemes in New Zealand appeared to be severely restricted by the glut on the British market and that the public was uneasy over the heavy expenditure on the small farms scheme the Minister retorted with heat that such comment was " silly and uncalled for." Yet in an interview printed yesterday the Minister seems to change his ground completely. The small farms scheme, we are told, is to be confined to districts where men can be j settled on blocks of approximately five acres near large centres of population. The.policy of settling men on larger blocks, which he adumbrated a fortnight ago, has been abandoned because of the uncertain market for dairy produce and because men with little or no experience of farming cannot safely be settled on sheep country. We call attention to this abrupt reversal of the Minister's point of view, not in order to score a debating point, but in order to show that the frequent criticisms of the small farms scheme, which members of the Government have usually met in a spirit of peevish resentment, have been thoroughly justified. The objections to the settlement of unemployed men on the land which the Minister enumerated on Thursday were as obvious when the Small Farms Board came into operation as they are now and were voiced in " The Press" more than a year ago. If the scheme did not involve any substantial capital outlay there might be less cause lor complaint. But, although the Government has been consistently reluctant to give details and ligures, there is good reason to suppose that the expenditure of the Small Farms Board has been heavy. Jt began its work in April, 1933, and, according to a .statement by the Minister towards the end of last year, it had spent about £160,000 m six months. It seems reasonable to suppose, theretore, that its expenditure to date has been not Jess than £250,000. That the money could more usefully have been spent on other projects seems beyond question