HOPE LIES IN LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 12

HOPE LIES IN LAND

SOLVING UNEMPLOYMENT SUGGESTION BY LEAGUE An intimate knowledge of the possibilities and requirements of those parts of the North Island where lie the largest areas of undeveloped State lands, was urged as a requirement of the fourth member of the proposed Lands Development Board, by a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League yesterday. •The principle of assisting men of small means up to the point where their holdings would become reproductive was praised by the secretary, Mr. N. G. Gribble. The simplest means of solving the unemployment problem appeared to be the encouragement of semi-agricultural industx-ies through the development of natural resources. The only hope lay with the land. Assistance and sympathetic interest was assured various Thames and Coromandel residents, who wrote suggesting the formation of branches of the league in their districts. Surprise at the Government’s failure to accept the British Government’s offer of an annual grant for settlement purposes was expressed by the chairman, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth. The league, since its inception, had emphasised the need of assistance in immigration and settlement.