The Northern Advocate "NORTHLAND FIRST." Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1944. LAND FOR SERVICEMEN.

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1944, Page 2

The Northern Advocate "NORTHLAND FIRST." Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1944. LAND FOR SERVICEMEN.

A SCHEME proposed by the local branch of the R.S.A. for the settlement of returned servicemen on the land, as one feature of the Dominion’s rehabilitation policy, has points worthy of consideration. It is proposed that there should be adopted a system of development akin to the collective farming system in Russia, and which, in some respects, has been utilised in New Zealand.

It is suggested, in effect, that land for settlement should be selected where it can be obtained in substantial areas, and, divided into suitable sections, made available to returned servicemen to bring into productivity. In order to overcome the difficulty which faced the earlier settlers of the Dominion, the aid of the State is to be invoked. The pioneer settlers, because they could not afford to buy the mechanical aids to farming such as then existed, were obliged to depend upon their own backbreaking efforts to clear their land and bring it to a state where it would make existence possible.

This meant a lifetime of slavery to secure improvements which can now be effected by machinery in the course of months rather than'years. It is accordingly urged that the Government should be asked to extend the service it initiated before the war, of making tractors, ploughs' and other necessary equipment available to the groups engaged in breaking in land. This system has evidently proved very successful in Russia, where tractors and other machinery, located in a central position, are made available to the farmers in collective settlements in much the same way that owners of hay balers, rotary hoes and other machinery undertake work for farmers in the Whangarei district. This obviates a farmer’s expenditure on the purchase of machinery which he needs to use for only a day or two during a year. If the Government, by providing necessary mechanical assistance, would help servicemen engaged in land development, a double purpose would be served: returned soldiers, while receiving wages in the meantime, would be able to bring land into cultivation at an earlier date than would otherwise be possible, and the Dominion’s output of primary produce would increase correspondingly. While the broad outlines of such a scheme will meet with approval, it must be recognised that details require careful consideration, for repercussions on general policy may clearly be extensive. Nevertheless, there is a strong case to be made out for reduction of farm drudgery by making machinery available to farmers whose financial position does not warrant the purchase of expensive machinery required for a very limited time each year. An obvious obstacle is the fact that seasonal operations cannot be delayed, which means that either State or privatelyowned machinery would require to be available in considerable quantity if weather and other circumstances were to be successfully circumvented. The scheme mentioned, of course, applies particularly to closely settled districts comprising small farms, but the suggestions contained in the R.S.A. proposals open a field of useful debate, especially as it deals principally with the development of areas of land which are not first-class, but whose potential productivity must not be ignored.