CROWN LANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 96, 20 October 1937, Page 8

CROWN LANDS

SMALL FARMS SCHEME

SUCCESSFUL OPERATION

The improved condition of the fanning industry is. reflected in the increased receipts of the Lands Department from Crown tenants, the total last year, excluding discharged soldier settlement receipts, being £1,402,596, which is an improvement on the previous year of £126.000. Crown lands revenue dropped in 1933 to £742.000. There were remissions of rent during the year totalling £170,977, and arrears of rent now amount to £942.000. The most' active feature of the Department's work is in connection with small farms settlement, and the annual report tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday states that several of the development blocks were completed sufficiently to permit of their being subdivided and the sections placed under the individual management of their occupiers. In no case has a tenure been given, but where revenue is sufficient the occupants collect a portion of the dairy cheques, while in other cases the men have remained on a wage basis of £4 per week, less 10s per week for a cottage. INCREASED PRODUCTION. Carrying capacity has increased enormously on most blocks, and from six blocks under the control of the Chief Drainage Engineer the butterfat production shows an Increase of from 50 to 100 per cent, over the previous year. In" the four main King Country blocks butterfat production has increased in a year by 80 per cent, in value, wool by 168 per cent., and pigs by 118 per cent. Of the individual holdings the report suggests that it can be safely said that generally they are.a success. The board is conservative in cases of purchase of one-man farms, the valuation being such that capital charges do not exceed £1000, otherwise they are not allowed to be taken up. Under these conditions the holders, it is stated, cannot fail to prosper, but such properties' as these are, unfortunately, not now forthcoming, and so small a percentage of available properties measured up to the board's standard of valuation and carrying capacity that it withdrew its invitation to applicants to locate farms for individual purchase. "During the year there has been comparatively little extension of the area included in the small farms scheme," adds the report, "the main item being furtherance of land-develop-ment operations, which have been very successful. The principal reason for not launching out on new work has been the need to take into account that three-eighths of the wages cost has. from June 1 last, been charged to capital, and must therefore be loaded on to the land. Much of this land is 'marginal* land which cannot be developed economically by ordinary settlement, and which cannot bear any portion of labour costs, and the board could not consicentiously undertake additional work on such lands, knowing that there would be losses of capital." Individual holdings established under the Small Farms Board administration number 365, With a total area of 24,522 acres. i