BANK AIDS LAND SCHEMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21252, 4 August 1932, Page 8

BANK AIDS LAND SCHEMES

Bringing vision and a practical mind to bear upon the urgent problems of unemployment, the trustees of the Auckland Savings Bank have given a magnificent lead to the country by their decision, subject to Parliamentary sanction and reasonable conditions, to provide* a substantial measure of financial support for the land settlement scheme initiated by Mr. D. V. Bryant and his Waikato associates and for a farm training scheme for boys. It is a matter for pride that the province possesses men with the public spirit, driving force and wisdom in the emergency as those who are sponsoring this movement. Already the Bryant settlement plan has a financial foundation of some thousands of pounds donated by the "Waikato group. The Savings Bank offers £IO,OOO on condition that at least an equal amount is raised from the public by way of gift. With free capital of at least £20.000 the trustees

should find no difficulty in arranging the further necessary finance with which to proceed on a comprehensive scale. Several laudable purposes will be served. Unemployed, receiving in the first instance sustenance relief, will be provided with homes and full-time occupation in the productive work of bringing into full cultivation partly developed blocks of land, and the eventual settlement of the sections by the best-fitted of the workers, will solve their personal problem and add to the national income. One of the most important features of the scheme is that it will be controlled by practical farmers who have achieved success. Their knowledge will be invaluable in selecting the land to be dealt with, in procuring stock and in appointing men of the right type as overseers, and afterwards in judging the aptitude and capacity of the applicants for the sections, which will be valued on their production Uty|sis alone. Thus, it will open real opportunity to men now leading a , precarious existence. What its scope I will bds will determined by circuml I

stances, but once properly launched at a time when land prices are low, it may expand by its own momentum into a settlement organisation of very wide dimensions. With initial difficulties solved for them the successful applicants for sections will soon be in the position of paying their way, thus enabling the organisation to take up new areas if it so desires, for by reserving the right to direct and control all holdings until their ultimate alienation, the customary percentage of loss through failure will be greatly reduced. Under soundmanagement—and there is every reason for confidence in the promoters—the scheme has wonderful possibilities. In addition to helping production when it is most needeJ,

another public gain will accrue in easing the deadweight of idle or semi-idle acres which is such a burden to the farming community and investors. The Savings Bank's second offer to spend £2OOO on land for the training of boys, and a further sum not exceeding £20,000 in five years for developing it, and settling selected boys thereon is another splendid lead to the community toward the solution of the workless boy problem. Both gifts mean the practical application of the spirit of community self-help and the ideal of the good neighbour for which the Prince of Wales has been pleading.