THE SMALL FARMS PLAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 102, 11 April 1933, Page 11

THE SMALL FARMS PLAN

RESULTS MOST GRATIFYING COMMENT BY THE MINISTER WELLINGTON, April 10. The Rt. Hon. J. G, Coates, commenting on the small farms plan, said that the results of the experience of past months had been most gratifying. Some 750 families had actually been placed on the land or were in the course of taking up their sections. These had little or no capital; yet, with scarcely an exception, reports showed that they were doing well and were completely satisfied. This experience certainly showed the possibility of settling families on more limited areas of land than the widely-supposed necessary minimum area of some hundreds of acres. At the moment, Mr Coates said, the markets for most of our products were in a depressed and unsettled state, but these discouraging conditions would uot last. Despite talk of surpluses and socalled over-production it was clear that the people of the world stood in need of more products than we could supply. In extending the small farm plan par. ticular attention was to be given to utilising existing services and the departments of the Government. The Lands Department would be directly responsible' in the acquisition and disposal of land. Offers of land might be made to the Lands Department, commissioners of Crown lands and the department’s field officers, as well as to the Department of Agriculture. Those officers would continue to be associated with the small farm plan. Applications by registered unemployed persons desirous of taking advantage of the small farm plan were to be addressed, as hitherto, to the officer in charge of the Labour Department or to a certifying officer under the Unemployment Board.