INCREASING PRODUCTION

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

INCREASING PRODUCTION

SCHEME FOR EMPLOYMENT. IMPROVEMENT OF TIMBER LANDS.

(By

“Tainui.”)

The suggestion first made public at the meeting of the Inglewood County Council that it was proposed to utilise the unemployed in clearing heavily timbered lands in Taranaki to enable the farmer now holding it to produce more and to take as payment an area on which an unemployed family could be settled is one that will appeal to most people. There is no doubt that it is a most useful and profitable way of utilising the unemployed, being a development of the “Over the Fence” scheme on a large scale. It is to be regretted that such a scheme had not been introduced earlier, as the men would have been far more profitably employed than has been the case in doing work about the towns that was not necessary. Moreover in doing work that was to be productive the men would probably feel much happier. The “Over the Fence” scheme had its limitations, as in most cases farmers that could afford to pay transport and provide a' little extra for the men received first consideration, and farmers on the land mentioned as valuable for the proposed scheme could not afford to pay for the transport, which would be a fairly heavy charge, as they live some distance away from the centre of population. Moreover the clearing that could be carried but under the “Over the Fence” scheme would be merely a drop in the bucket. A scheme of the comprehensive nature of the one most recently mooted will probably mean the establishment of camps and the bringing of large areas into complete production, besides giving many of the unemployed—sqme of whom, are farmers that have failed as the result of the fall in. prices—an opportunity' of making another start. It appears to be the best scheme" that has yet been submitted. There are many settlers now struggling dong, on; a large area of unproductive land who would be far better off if their area were reduced, and particularly. so if the area that remained to them was at once put into a productive state, which they themselves could not accomplish in their’ life-time. Officials of the Public Works Department who have to supervise the work of the unemployed men in various camps strongly support the idea, which it is understood originally emanated from a Taranaki official who from his knowledge of Taranaki considers that the production of the province could be increased by about 25 per cent, if all the heavily timbered land now in occupation were brought into a state of full production. The Public Works Department would, of course, work in with Hie Agricultural Department in selecting suitable areas on which to make a etart, and in supervising the work. Care would have to be taken to see that once Lhe land was cleared it was not allowed to go back again into weeds,: etc., but was kept productive.. While the land up on the.slopes of the mountain may not be of the same high quality, as some on the coast, it has a compensating advantage in that there is an abundant rainfall; with the result that in the summer and. autumn, when the coastal land is showing the effects, of the dry weather, the pasture on the land higher up is quite green, and the milk supply is holding up well.