SMALL FARMS SCHEME

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18484, 24 August 1934, Page 7

SMALL FARMS SCHEME

SATISFACTORY RESULTS

LARGE AREA SETTLED WORK STILL PROCEEDING (Parliamentary Jteportcr.) WELLINGTON, tiiis day. Satisfactory results from the operation of the small farm's scheme wore claimed by the Minister 6f. Finance, the lit. Hon I. (1 Conte;, in the cour.se of his Budget speech last evening. '] he scheme La's now lieori under tiio administration of the .Small Farms Board for a little over ,one /ear, and the results may bo massed as satisfactory having regard to the falling prices of dairy products and to the fact that, the fall has not been reflected in the prices asked for land. The main difficulty met with by the Board lias been that-of acquiring suitable land at prices in keeping with productive capacity. Dairying inis been I he principal basis of calculation in subdividing land for small farms, but each settler has had the option of developing such. side lines as suited the particular property and his own qualifications. Most settlers, however, have confined themselves almost entirely to dairying. In view of the stafo of the dairying industry, however, the board has recently considered it desirable to give more encouragement to mixed farming or lamb-fattening on a small scale, under intensive farming Conditions. This type of farming leaves the set-' tier in a position to increase or reduce his activities from year to year in any particular line according lo market fluctuations.

it should not be inferred from this that the small farms scheme has been confined solely to dairying and sheepfarming in relatively large holdings. A number of live-acre lots has been provided in localities deemed suitable -—the settlers to grow fruit, to go in for market-gardening and poultry, and to.keep one, or two cows for household purposes, and perhaps a few pigs. At the beginning of the Inst financial year the number of men settled under the original small farms scheme was 753, of which 265 were “share milkers,” and 4SS were settled on individual holdings of the type popularly known as “10-acre farms.” During tlio year it was found nccosj sary for various reasons to close 25 of these small holdings and, in addition, four were removed from the “share milking” list. The progress made under the administration of the board is illustrated by the. following figures of tho position as at the end of Mftv, 19.,4: Individual Holdings settled, 321, area 20,495 acres; blocks in course of development, 554, 35,850 acres; number of share milkers approved, 59. In addition, the board has n,ow under negotiation the acquisition of. approximately 24,981 acres, estimated to provide 269 holdings. One of the subsidiary objects of tho small farms scheme has been to provide work immediately for unemployed men, apart from, those settled on -individual properties, and approximately seven hundred men are at present engaged on land-improvement and development Work.