THE SMALL FARM PLAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21643, 13 May 1932, Page 8

THE SMALL FARM PLAN

TO THE EDITOR.

Sm, —Referring further to Mr Coates’s small farm plan, 1 had the honour personally to sell to the Laud Purchase Board a fiat paddock of C 9 acres adjoining the Kurow township and now known as the Tahawai settlement. It was cut up into areas of eight and nine acres. The enterprising settlers brought in a water race from the Kurow Creek, and it has been one of the most sucessful small-tarm settlements in the Dominion. The settlers provided their own dwellings and improvements. The amount produced off these small areas (when irrigated) in cereals, roots, lucerne, clover, hay was something wonderful. So sucsessful was this settlement that a petition was circulated to buy the adjoining farm. This also proved equally successful when irrigation was applied. Still further down, alongside main highway, is what was once the Government settlement of Otiake, of which the settlors have now acquired the freehold. It would be equally successful, and would give room for hundreds of settlers if acquired at a fair price, Mr Chapman’s property, or at least part of it, might also be obtained at a fair price. Still further is the estate of Oteknike, a great deal of which is suitable for irrigation, and of which the Government settlers might part with their rights at a fair price. The inexhaustible supply ot water at the hydro works would supply enough to irrigate the lot at a minimum cost. Supplies could also he obtained from the Awakino, Kurow. Otiake. and Otckaike Rivers. If the scheme proved a success, as there is no reason to doubt, the Maercwhenua, Tokarahi, and other districts might also come in later. Irrigation and small farming are among one of the sure ways of emerging from the slump and making our Dominion permanently prosperous. Mr Macpherson

has indicated the success of group farming. He, no doubt, will elaborate the scheme more fully. Under the Congested Areas Act (Ireland), to which I referred in a personal letter, practical men wele appointed to show the inexperienced settler how to farm. This was a great success. The instructors took a few acres and farmed them in the proper manner, and the big returns induced the amateur farmer to copy his example. I know ot a very practical man on one of these small farms who is an expert in irrigation, dairying, growing crops, etc., whom it would pay to have supervise the new settlers. He is a most successful practical man in every branch of farming and knowledge of stock and is a genuine working man. Hoping these facts may be helpful in solving our unemployed difficulties, —I am etc., G. Stringer. Oamaru. May 11.