NO UNDUE RESTRICTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18253, 23 November 1933, Page 4

NO UNDUE RESTRICTION

SMALL FARMS .SCHEME EMPLOYED MAY APPLY NO SUSTENANCE ALLOWED (Par Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. In the House of Representatives, Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Coal., Waitomo) asked whether the Minister Of Lands would give an assurance that, in the ease of married men who had been on relief work, aiul who were anxious to secure a holding under the small farms legislation, tlio taking of temporary employment with the Public Works Department, or with private individuals, would not debar them from iicquiring such a holding. He said the debarring of these men from acquiring such holdings would work an in-' justice, and destroy the desire of such married men to seek employment. The lion. E. A. Ransom said that the Small Farms (Relief of Unemployment) Act provided for the settlement of registered unemployed, and those whose '.settlement, on the land would tend to relieve unemployment. It was clear, therefore, that the men to whom Mr -Broadfoot had referred were included in the second category, and they were eligible to apply for land. it was also competent, for them to obtain an option over a suitable area of land, and lodge an application to he established on that area.

The Minister added: “It is only right that I should point out that in the settlement of men in the second category, no temporary sustenance allowance will he paid by the Unemployment Board as in the case of registered unemployed where such allowance is required to assist in the applicant’s establishment. It must not. he overlooked that the small farms plan is an unemployment measure, and the Small Farms Board could not increase the load on the unemployment fund by bringing on to the fund men who were already in employment.. For the same reason, men selected for employment, on land development work must ho registered unemployed, aiul must bo recruited through labor bureaux. As an incentive to unemployed men to accept such employment, the Small Farms Board has decided that in disposing of subdivisions of areas developed by the unemployed, the selectors will he drawn from the men engaged in the development operations.”