BREAKING WASTE LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 410, 19 July 1928, Page 18

BREAKING WASTE LAND

UNEMPLOYMENT SOLUTION DEVONPORT SUGGESTION A suggestion for unemployment rgs lief was made at a meeting of tlie Devonport Borough Council last evening by Mr. T. Enright. His idea was that the primage cus. toms duty should be increased from 1 per cent, to li per cent., which would yield another £250,000 a year. This sum should be utilised to pay the younger and stronger types among those seeking work in breaking areas of Crown land. As the land was made available it could be sold. In all probability most of the men, by that time, would have acquired a fair knowledge of farming and be capable of taking over the working of some of the land. The scheme would not entail any hardship on any section of the community, the machinery for collecting the money was in existence, and in addition to giving much-needed relief, would have a distinctly economic benefit In bettering the productivity of the country, which could not ne said of many of the present relief schemes. The councillors were of opinion that the idea was worth examining, but that the borough council was hardly the body to do it. Cr. Walsh pointed out that the only effort now being made to bring waste land into bearing was that made by the prison .camps. In fact, the only way a man could get an education in farming was to get into gaol first. It was decided to send in the suggestion of Mr. Enright to the meeting of local bodies to be held at Mount Eden Borough Council Chambers on Tuesday. ’