LAND DEVELOPMENT

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4805, 3 July 1939, Page 2

LAND DEVELOPMENT

OVER MILLION POUNDS SPENT. HUGE SCOPE OF WORK. The benefits that must accrue to Te Kuiti from the operation of the Small Farms and the Land Development Schemes, was commented upon by the Hon. W. Lee Martin, Minister of Agriculture, when ' opening the Winter Show yesterday afternoon. Taking a strip approximately 100 miles long and 50 miles wide, with Te Kuiti approximately in its centre, a total of 57,5.83 acres was under development.

Each year has seen an increasing number of sections brought into the scheme—27 were added during the past year, with an area af approximately 12,000 acres. At the 31st March, 1939, 824 men were employed by the Land Development branch at Te Kuiti, and their wage bill amounted to £201,859, a very large portion of which must have been spent in Te Kuiti. The total wages since the scheme started reached by March last the huge figure of £537,499.

Indicating the progress of the schemes, he said between 1938 and 1939 the sheep increased from 47,229 to 68,645, dairy cattle from 1130 to 1199 and run cattle from 2385 to 6446. Production from the blocks amounted to £62,791, made up of butterfat £6234, sheep sales £23,240, wool.' £13,987, cattle £13,350, pigs £1067, and sundires £4913. In spite of the bad effect of facial eczema 14,000 lambs, mostly Romney cross, were bred during the season.

The total expenditure on wages and materials from 1933 to 1939 on all the blocks directly controlled from Te Kuiti had been £1,089,429, and the expenditure for the past year had approximated two-thirds of the previous total from the inception of the scheme in the King Country district.