FREE STATE FARMERS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6632, 11 June 1928, Page 10

FREE STATE FARMERS

A remarkable example of the working of tho Irish Free, State Land Act of 1923 was given recently when 35 persons with 350 head of livestock and other possessions, left by a special train of 37 waggons and coaches from the extremity of Dingle Peninsula in Kerry to new homos near Edenberry, King’s County, a fertile midland region. The Dingle Peninsula is a congested district of little stony fields and petty holdings, few if any of which are economic. The people arc housed in miserable cabins, and beasts share the shelter with human beings. Under the 1923 Act the Land Commission has powers to relieve tho congested districts by removal of tenants to any district in the 26 counties, and in this instance several families were transferred over a distance of nearly 200 miles for the occupation of a newly-divided estate in a sparsely populated region. All tho men except the old folk, are capable dairy farmers, and it is hoped that their new farms will bo tho nucleus of a growing dairying industry in a countryside hitherto mainly devoted to grazing. A thousand acres have been taken, and about one quarter of this area will be occupied by the present contingent of settlers. A new house has been built for every family and holdings will carry from 17 to 40 cows apiece. All the settlers were selected in accordance with the rules governing all such cases—that the heads of families are personally fit, and possess a good knowledge of farming with a spirit of progressiveness; and that tho land which they surrender is suitable for the relief of local congestion. While the group of settlers will be rendered economically independant, relief will be brought to an equivalent number of inhabitants of County Kerry whose petty farms will Be enlarged by the division of the vacated holdings.