Small Farm Plan

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 42, 19 February 1938, Page 5

Small Farm Plan

WELLINGTON, Feb. 17. The Government has decided t'J .utilise the organisation of the Small : Farms Board for an important extenI sion of land development work in the j King Country and Hauraki Plains : areas. Details of this new scheme were announced by the Minister of Lands, jtlie Hon. F. Laugstone, in an interview recently, and they indicate that the , new work will bring many more thousands of acres of good land into use and also give employment to some hundreds of men. Included in the new proposals, the Minister pointed out, were the Tokoroa education reserve on the PutaruruAtiamuri main road, containing approximately 5000 acres, an additional 1200 acres of the Ngakuru Block, near Atiamuri, andthe Kaitaringa Block of 1325 acres, situated at Wairere Falls, close to the Ngatamahine Block of 2700 acres, which, the Minister said, had been developed by the board with marked success. Further work in the | King Country will include the reconditioning of Crown leaseholds and securities abandoned by occupiers unable t«< cope with ragwort and second growth, j Camps have been established or are being established on 17 properties totalling more than 7000 acres, and an additional 11 sections, containing approximately 4000 acres, will be taken ovei as soon as the estimates of cost now being prepared are completed. The chief new work on the Hauraki Plains will be the development of 11,000 acres of swamp land, comprising part of the Pouarua Block, which has been drained by the land drainage branch at Kerepeehi. “At December 31 last,’' the Minister said, “approximately 1000 men were engaged under the small farms scheme on land development, which serves the dual purpose of- providing reproductive work for registered unemployed and creating a national asset, as well as homes and an assured asset, as well as home and an assured future for many. It is anticipated that these new jobs will employ an additional 400 men anO the position then will be that the j Farms Board will have under development 80,000 acres, employing 1400 registered unemployed. Blocks in the King j Country which three years ago were carrying practically no stock are now I carrying just on 50,000 sheep, 1000 glairy cows, 2500 bullocks, 500 pigs ant* IGO horses. ' }