King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, June 27, 1933. SMALL FARM SCHEME.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 4410, 27 June 1933, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, June 27, 1933. SMALL FARM SCHEME.

The regulations have now been gazetted to provide machinery for the carrying out of the scheme to place suitable unemployed men on the land. This is the first tangible attempt made to find a partial permanent solution of the unemployment problem, and the scheme has distinct possibilities. It will provide hundreds of men with the opportunity of establishing a home for themselves and families. Out of the 70,000 unemployed in the Dominion there must be hundreds who would grasp this opportunity and amongst them men with practical experience in farming. Provided proper precautions are taken, there should be no difficulty in securing the right men for these small farms. There was considerable opposition to the Small Farm Scheme when it was before Parliament last session, the Opposition contending that the allocation from the Unemployment Fund would affect the amount for ordinary unemployment relief. It has to be remembered, however, that a large proportion of the relief works are unproductive, and provided only temporary means of sustenance for the unemployed. If a thousand men can be placed on these small farms they will indirectly provide work for others, and this will tend to diminish the number of the unemployed. The selected men on these small farms will have an objective in life. The

conditions under which they will take up these holdings are very much different to any land settlement scheme in this Dominion. The newly established farmer will not be handicapped with heavy mortgage interest charges; he will be called upon.to farm every acre of his holding; and he will have the advantage of expert advice to enable him to obtain the maximum production. As far as possible the scheme will be on the group system, and the new farmers thus be enabled to take advantage of those public and social amenities which have been lacking with many of the back-block settlers. Under these conditions the men should have an inspiration to do their best in making a success of their holdings. In a statement concerning a project for the development of some thousands of acres of land for close settlement, the Minister of Lands pointed out that in the preparation of this area hundreds of men will be temporarily employed. The advantage of engaging unemployed men on useful work of this nature, in preference to placing them in the uninspiring routine of comparatively futile pick and shovel work in and around towns need not be stressed. There are thousands of capable men available for these small farms, and suitable land being available, there seems to be no sound argument why the scheme should not be a success. It will be said that it is useless to place more men on the land while the present settlers cannot pay their way. The men will be given a small allowance, however, until such time as they have established themselves on their farms, and it is only reasonable to expect that there will be better conditions in the future. There is the talk of over-production, but when it is known that there are millions of people in Europe alone on the borderline of starvation, it cannot be said that as far as foodstuffs are concerned that the world has reached saturation point in this way. There are some who condemn the Small Farm Scheme, but they have no suggestion to make regarding a solution of the unemployment problem. Even with the prevailing low prices for our produce it at least finds a market, which our secondary products would not if they were further developed. The small farms that have been already established give great promise of success, and the extensions proposed appear to be soundly conceived. They are amongst the few economic plans which the Government has introduced to provide the unemployed with a future, without which the men have no incentive to give of their best.