75,000 ONIONS PLANTED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17945, 24 November 1932, Page 11

75,000 ONIONS PLANTED

RELIEF COMMITTEE'S CROP

CULTIVATION OF PARKS

VEGETABLE SUPPLIES ASSURED

To the average kitchen-gardener, who plants a few .hundred onion seedlings m the early summer and spends most of the growing season in an endeavor to keep the rows weeded the planting of 75,0C0 would seem an act of sheer foolhardiness. Yet the Central Belief Committee, which has done so much to relieve distress among the indigent families of Gisborne, has not only undertaken the planting and cave of 75,000 onions, but has had planted also about 17,000 head of cabbage, 2’- tons of potatoes, and numberless rows of lettuce, leeks, carrots, parsnips, beet and many other varieties of vegetables and greens, including hundreds of plants of marrow, pumpkin and squash. The committee has no intention of being short ot vegetables for distribution during the holiday season and the late summer and autumn.

To-dav the large areas of land in Anzac Park and the Botanical Gordens extension, planted by direction of the committee, are not only promising a huge production, but actually yielding the early supplies of many varieties of vegetables. Since last summer the committee has spent a considerable sum in the purchase of seed for these gardens, and in justification of this policy, can point with pride to the cultivated areas. The money laid out in seed might have yielded a temporary benefit to a few families, if expended during the past winter, but the policy of the committee has been to secure the greatest possible value from every donation, and funds which were not earmarked for othoi purposes were in many instances turned to the seed account. |) GOOD VALUE IN POTATOES Potatoes proved the most costly item of the committee’s purchases last summer and autumn, and at current rates the potatoes now coming into bearing in the Botanical Gardens extension and at Anzac Park represent a value of approximately £2OO, at a conservative estimate. It is realised that the public cannot be looked to for handsome donations of cash in the future as in the past, and that the value of potatoes anq other vegetables must represent the best investment, as a safeguard against iiaiclship for indigent families in the coming months. Practically all manual work in connection with the gardens has been cained out by labor supplied through the Borough Council, and capable supervision lias been given by council offieuUs, such as the engineer and the reserves superintendent. while Messrs. W. Oakdeit and Ben Taylor, lion, secretary and non. custodian to the Relief Committee, have given much thought unci effort to the careful development of the scheme. No one in Gisborne is in a better position than Messrs. Oakdon and Taylor to realise the need for assistance to indigent families, and the cultivation of the vege-table-producing areas is one of the principal safeguards they have been able to devise in connection with relief distribution for the early future. Of immediate interest is the crop of early potatoes, planted with a view to distribution at Christmas time, this plot being well forward at Anzac Park and likely to produce matured potatoes before the middle of December. In the meantime, the committee realises that there are many gardens producing a surplus of spring and early summer vegetables, and requests householders to donate such surpluses to the relief depot. Collections will be made by the depot lorry, if delivery is dimcult to arrange, and while refraining from making a definite appeal for assistance, the committee will gladly acknowledge all gifts of garden produce.