FARM IMPROVEMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1935, Page 6

FARM IMPROVEMENTS.

An extension of the subsidies for farm improvements has been announced by the Minister of Finance. That form of relief was decided upon for two reasons. It would create employment, for skilled as well as unskilled workers, and it would enable farm production to be improved. At first the Unemployment Board offered the subsidy to dairy farmers only, inquiry having indicated that improvements on the farm would assist in raising the quality of dairy produce for export. The subsidies are now to apply to' farm buildings such as wool and implement sheds, and, under certain conditions, to farm, machinery and implements. Apart from the question of improved production the extension of the scheme is in furtherance of the policy of stimulating employment through assistance to private enterprise. It goes without saying that a woolshed or implement shed could not be erected without the use of labour and material, and the same conditions apply to farm imple-

ments. Moreover, a good deal of the labour involved will be skilled labour, thus reducing one of the most unsatisfactory features of ordinary relief plans, namely, the occupation of skilled tradesmen upon unskilled work. Applications for the farm subsidies must be made through the Department of Agriculture. That condition already applies in regard to the dairy farmer, and enables the expert officers of the department to advise the Unemployment Board whether any work proposed is worth subsidising. If full advantage is taken of the subsidies now made available farming conditions should be improved and more employment be made available.