SMALL FARMS SCHEME

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 August 1934, Page 5

SMALL FARMS SCHEME

MINISTER REVIEWS PROGRESS. [PBB PBISS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, August 30. Th© claim that within the limits controlled by the necessity for purchasing land, the small farms settlement scheme had fully justified itself, was made by the Minister of Lands, to-night. Mr Ransom, in an interview, briefly surveyed tlie progress of the ■scheme which he said should be considered together with the Department’s land development operations on which unemployed men were engaged. The men at present working under the scheme, were distributed as follow: Employed on small farm blocks 794, employed on . ordinary settlement blocks 217; established as sharemilkers 325; placed on individual holdings 816; total 2152. Including 1090 men employed in forestry, which was seasonal land work, the grand total was 3242. Under the original small farm scheme, Mr Ransom said, the operations were in the main confined to 10-acre holdings, but the advisability of establishing men on full time farms soon became apparent. Except in favoured localities, the occupier of the five and ten acre holdings was still largely depending on the labour market. The Small Farms Board, established in April of last year, had decided as a policy measure on a scheme of absorbing the maximum amount of labour and of keeping establishment costs per settler at a minimum; therefore the Board had set out to develop the marginal lands of a lighter type. These lands were readily responding to top-dressing, although the purchase cost was low. Sections of the Crown . land of the same type were also being used. At present, the Small Farm Board was actively engaged in development of 28 blocks comprising 36,720 acres, and 558 holdings. Apart from this, the Lands Development Board was developing for ordinary settlement 11 blocks comprising 60,000 acres, and 290 holdings. Allowing for the blocks under negotiation, there was in prospect for selection approximately 1000 entirely new holdings. On several, blocks, houses had already been 1 built, and balloted for, and the prospective settlers and their families were in occupation. As an indication that many small farms were already self-supporting, (the Minister said that the number of men receiving sustenance had been reduced from 608 to 307. The total amount authorised for the small farm settlement to date was £508,000. ‘‘Despite the unfavourable position of our primary industries, Mr Ransom continued, “I believe the scheme will prove a good investment for the Dominion. It is a valuable extension of the Government’s closer settlement policy.”