GARDEN SCHEME

Southland Times, Issue 22766, 17 December 1935, Page 6

GARDEN SCHEME

RELIEF WORKERS. PRIZES AWARDED. Shortly after the inception of the No. 5 Scheme the Unemployment Board directed that relief workers should not receive assistance out of the unemployment fund unless they demonstrated that they were doing all that was reasonably practicable to help themselves. In pursuance of this policy the board decreed that relief workers who failed to keep useful vegetable gardens were to be debarred from obtaining unemployment relief. In Invercargill, largely at the instance of Mr J. D. Gilmore, a committee of public-spirited citizens was appointed for the purpose of co-operat-ing with the men in their gardening work and assisting them to purchase at cheap rates the seeds, fertilizers and potatoes that they required. This year the committee gave assistance to 443 men. Ten and a-half tons of fertilizers, 7 tons of potatoes and 1600 packets of seeds were distributed. The Invercargill Gardening Committee has good reason to be gratified at the success that has attended its efforts, and to be still more gratified at the enthusiasm, skill and co-operation of the relief workers who have been operating under the scheme. During the last four years a competition has been conducted for which only relief workers are eligible to enter. Prizes are given for the bestkept home gardens and for the best gardens in the areas provided by the City Council and citizens. The competition for the present year has just been judged. The following are the successful entrants: HOME GARDENS. J. E. Campbell, Kakapo street, 1 (£2 10/-). C. G. Cook, 47 Thomson street, R. C. Beatty, 316 Ettrick street, and G. Taylor, IGI Liddell street (equal) 2 (£2 each). R. E. Robertson, 110 Mary street, J. D. Tippett, Ethel street, and O. Lees, 149 Teviot street (equal), 3 (£1 each). COMMUNITY PLOTS. J. A. Forbes, 19 Thames street, and R. M. Patterson, Metzger street (equal), 1 (£2 10/- each). G. Peebles, 97 Ness street, 2 (£1). So excellently kept were many of the gardens that the judges had a difficult task in making their awards, and in a number of cases they could not separate the competitors. The committee is most grateful to the trustees of the estate of the late Reginald MacKinnon and to the Invercargill Rotary Club for donations to the. prize fund.