LAND OFFERED FREE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20259, 29 May 1940, Page 11

LAND OFFERED FREE

WAR EFFORT FARMING

SUGGESTED USE BY WOMEN An offer to allow anyone who wanted to make a contribution to the war effort the use of an area of good quality land free, together with living accommodation, was made by Mrs. F. A. Roberts, Wcstmerc, Auckland, who is about to take over her son’s farm because of his enlistment for active service. I Mrs. Roberts said her son had a farm of 600 acres near Arapuni. He was running sheep on half of it and the rest was standing idle in high fern. She had lived in Auckland in recent years, but now that her son was leaving, she and a 15-year-old son would work the area running sheep. However, anyone who wanted to increase the country's production was welcome to grow produce or otherwise farm as much as they wished of the remainder of the property for the duration of the war. A retired couple or former farmers •wives who were anxious to do what they could to help in the war effort could live in the farmhouse with her. AH they would need was capital for bringing the land into production and living expenses. The farm was right on the road and the land was good. She had heard that a number of women with farming experience had volunteerd to work on the land during the war, Mrs. Roberts said, and this proposal might appeal to some of them. They would be welcome to any profit they could make out of the land. It was suggested that the scheme might be adopted by other farmers. There must be large areas of land lying idle, which could be brought mto production in the present emergency in this way, and so increase the country’s output.