WAIKATO LAND SETTLEMENT

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 29 September 1933, Page 5

WAIKATO LAND SETTLEMENT

BRYANT SCHEME STARTED. SMALL FARMS NEAR CAMBRIDGE It was announced on Wednesday that the Waikato Land Settlement Society, founded by Mr IX V. Bryant, which has £20,000 available for land settlement, has purchased a block of 700 acres at Roto-\o-r:ang), between / e Awamutu and Cambridge, and eight miles from the latter place. An iinmediate start- will be made with the scheme. The property is owned by Mr P. C. Thelkeld, .'and is easy, undulating land, highly suitable for close settlement and capable of greatly increased production. Several .dozen relief workers will be at once engaged oil clearing, ploughing and fencing. The area- is already ring-fenced. It is planned to provide 10 or 1 2 farms of from 50 to 70 acres' each, and on the result of the experiment will probably depend the (extension of the scheme to other properties Commenting oil the purchase o, the land, Mr Bryant said that while the area was not capable of production now, it was considered possible to get most of it into permanent grass this season, thus enabling the society definitely to settle a number of families there next winter. In quality the land compared favourably, he said, with any in the Waikato, and the actjoining properties were well fanned. About 16 families would be settled on the block. He added that the launching -of the scheme had been unavoidably delayed, but it was intended yow to proceed quickly. The acquisition of more land" was at present the -abject of negotiation. The accounts ol each estate would- be kept separate. Within a fortnight applications from the unemployed would he invited.

A land settlement scheme as a means of helping to solve the unemployment problem was advocated last year b v Mr D. V. Bryant, of Hamilton, and subsequently the Auckland Savings Bank made a. conditional offer to donate £IO.OOO as the nucleus of a fund, provided a similar amount was raised from the general public. Mr Bryant succeeded in raising tlie necessary sum, and thus was established a fund of £20.000. The scheme is now being actively promoted by Mr Bryant °nd other trustees.