PRISON FARM WORK

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11168, 25 March 1922, Page 4

PRISON FARM WORK

BREAKING IN ROUGH AREAS VALUABLE ASSISTANCE GIVEN TO LAND SETTLEMENT. -EXTENSION OF OPERATIONS. The success achieved by the Prisons Department in providing healthy and profitable employment for good con-j duct prisoners in farm work and in the breakmg-in 6f rough country for settlemen has led the department to further extend its operations. Recently a notice appeared in the “Gazette” setting aside for prison purposes an area of country bordering on the road skirting Lake Taupo, and on this land a prison camp is to he established. In an interview with a “Times” reporter yesterday, the Minister for Jus- 1 tice (the Hon. E. P. Lee) stated that the departments concerned had made careful inquiry as to (the acquisition of am area of country that could be developed for settlement purposes by the proper application and utilisation of prison labour. Prison officers had reported favourably upon a large block of land purchased from the natives lying within a few' miles of the township of Tokaanu, on Lake Taupo. 10,000-ACRE BLOCK. . During recent years the Native Land Purchase branch of the Native D»>. partment- had acquired from the natives some 60,000 acres forming part the Hautu blocks. Ten thousand acres' of that land, which was chiefly pumice country, hut included a considerable area of bush and was flat to undulating in character, had been allotted by the Government to the Prisons Department within the past few months. The area to be taken over by the Prisons Department has been traversed by expert officers of the agricultural Department, who had reported fully oq the property and the methods to he employed in developing it. “While the l 10,000 acres,” the Min* ister said, “will he set aside absolutely for the use of the Prisons Department, tiie policy agreed upon is tq, gradually break in the country and propare it in blocks for settlement purposes. With this object in view the purvey Department has been asked to| divide the property into suitable blocks 1 for future subdivision. The intention of the Prisons Department is to de-| Veltap the property block by block, moving the temporary huts and other burldings for the prisoners'forward as! development proceeds, and throwing! open .the country for settlement imme-' <nately it is ready for that purpose. In the meantime, the department wilh farm such parts of the area as are suftij able for farming, and will depasture a* much stock as the country will carry, A START BEING MADE.

“In order that there miay he no delay in establishing, a camp on the area the Comptroller-General of Prisons has arranged for a number of hute, cookhouses, etc,, that have been used in the construction of the WaimarinoTokaanu road, to) he shifted from, along the roadline to the first camp site selected on the Hautu block. Reports furnished to me show that a number of huts have, already been placed in position. Tne superintendent (Mr J. Down) has taken charge of the camp, with two officers-and a number of .praoners, and they axe busy preparing cultivations far domestic purposes before the winter sets in. The ate fixed for the initial camp is on a fertile river flat of about 450 acres, forming the first section of .the block to ibe taken over by the Prisons Department. When the oattvp has been fully established morel prisoners will be drafted to Hautu, and the work of development will go on steadily. Caro will be exercised by the Prisons Department in the selection of the prisoners for the Hautu oamp, and the local natives will soon realise the great advantage it will be to their district to have the land in the vicinity of their Pas cultivated and placed in condition fox settlement fully ten years before this could happen under ordinary Settlement conditions.”