SMALL FARMS WANTED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21328, 1 November 1932, Page 11

SMALL FARMS WANTED

PROPOSAL TO OWNERS METHOD OF PAYMENT UNEMPLOYED TO BENEFIT Proposals which, if agreed to by the farmers concerned, will make available a number of areas suitable for the small farm scheme have been made in a circular sent by Auckland officers of the Unemployment Board to farmers in the Auckland Province. The scheme is that farmers should give areas of 10 or 12 acres in return for improvement work done on their properties by men working under the board's " over-the-fence " scheme. Under the " over-the-fence " scheme parties of unemployed workers carry out developmental work on the properties of farmers who are unable to finance the operations. The value of the work is assessed and the farmer recoups the Unemployment Board by making deferred payments spread over a short period of years. It has now been suggested to those farmers who owe fairly substantial amounts to the board that instead of paying this debt they might give to the board areas suitable for settlement under the small farm plan, setting the amount owing as part payment. It is also being proposed to other farmers who may have more land than they can work readily and require some assistance in bringing in uncultivated portions, that they might, set aside areas for small farms and accept the value of work done on the main property as compensation. It was explained yesterday that any areas offered would be subject to approval as suitable for the scheme, the necessary inspection and report being made by officers of the Agricultural Department. The small farm scheme has already met with considerable support and is regarded in the districts where it is operating as a profitable way of using unemployment funds. Its purpose is to place a number of married men on small farms so that they will become partly self-sup-porting and to make them available as casual labour for the farmers within a reasonable radius of their small holdings. It is not expected that all the men will bo farm hands, although they should be able to assist with ordinary farm work, but many of them will be men who have received training in one of the trades and will be in a position to earn extra money at building and other tasks about the countryside.