SHAREMILKING OR SMALL FARMS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1932, Page 6

SHAREMILKING OR SMALL FARMS

(To the .Editor,)/

Sir, —Now that Mr. Coates has returned the time is opportune to review \the small farm scheme. Instead of-helping men-to augment an already .precarious living it has so far proved a failure. . .' The Government cannot getj farmers to supply the necessary holdings. When the Government, introduced the;auxiliary- share-milk; ing scheme;*it destroyed any chance it may have had of obtaining land on'which to place the thousands of applicants. In this share-milking scheme the minimum wage \is £2 per week and house rent (say 10s per week). The Government provides the vent by building a house, on the farmer's land for .the prospective sharemilker. There is nothing said as to what share the milker would get to enable him to earn the princely sum of £2 per week. That is left to the former and the share-milker to arrange. If it is a small herd, say of

35 cows^-it may be a .Half-sjjare-rii-a herd of 70 cows, it-may be Only'a third-share, with a share'perhaps of the calves and pigs. If milking for a town supply there would be no pigs, as there would be no surplus milk to feed them. H for a .dairy factory there may be pigs kept, as ihe farmer would have his surplus skim milk from his supply. In these times calves can hardly be counted as a source of profit, as a great many are either killed or sent away as "bobby" calves. A few heifer calves from the best cows may be kept— but the share-milker has no say in, these. To work a herd.of 70 cows it would need a family of five, and what with cleaning up and feeding out, and incidental jobs, they would be kept fairly busy seven days a week, all the season. This would be cheap labour; for, with the average dairy farmer the minimum,is the maximum. He is sitting on a box seat presented by the Government with a- cheap house and cheaper labour—while the unfortunate milker who does all the.hard work will average' about eighteenpeiice per day Tor himselt.and family. If a farmer goes put of business the house is still there, and the Government may as well write the building off as a free gift to create a tired and spiritless race.-. .There, are many men I know-with good farming experience who have applied -for a holding under the small farm scheme —men ■ who would utilise every inch of ground under their control—but nowhere -in the ■ Wellington district can' I hear, of one being placed. And these are the men to prove the scheme worthy of its name, but they are still waiting.' There must be 'plenty of, abandoned farms which;' if cut up into smaller blocks,- could be made productive. Let the Minister of Employment .subdivide these, and he will have no' difficulty in placing on these sections, not failures, but experienced men. The^ ate the men to prove the scheme,, and they are anxiously awaiting a chance.—l ami etc., ■ • C.lB.