The Small Farms Scheme

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21257, 31 August 1934, Page 10

The Small Farms Scheme

I In a statement printed in "The "Press" tins morning the Minister for Lands. Mr Ransom, refers with his customary enthusiasm and vagueness to the progress of the small farms scheme. We have already questioned the wisdom of pressing ahead with a scheme foi putting more men on the land at a time when there is more than a possibility of New Zealand's being compelled to restrict exports of primary produce; and our questionings have drawn brusque, even heated, replies from the Minister, jAt the moment there can he no point in renewing that argument, since tv> fresh facts of any importance l.ave come to l'ght. Mr Coates, it is true, gave some figures in his financial statement about the number of holdings settled and remarked cautiously: The small farms schcnu. has br en | under the administration of t lk- I Small Farms Board for a little more | than one year, and the results may be classed as satisfactory having regard to the falling price of dairy precincts and to the fact that the fall has not been reflected in the prices asked for land.

Mr Ransom enlarges this statement a little by giving "examples" of the successful development ni" blocks of land. But examples are not enough. The public is already aware that some of the Small Farms Board's ventures have given good results. What it does not know, and has no means of knowing, the position of the small farms scheme as a whole. ff the position is " satisfactory," why does the Minister not say frankly what has been spent on the scheme to date, what the board's commitments are, how many men have been settled, how many have become self-sup-porting, what amount has been paid in sustenance allowances to men so settled, and how much the Unemployment Board has contributed to the cost of developing the land? When adequate answers have been given to these and other questions the public will be aole to judge for itself whether the small farms scheme lias 'been a wise undertaking. As long as those questions remain unanswered the Minister has only himself to b'ame if" critics of the scheme refuse to accept his assurances that all is well.