UNEMPLOYMENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18817, 4 March 1931, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT

LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME. By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 3. Dr W. A. Chappie, formerly M.P. for Tuapeka, and Member of the House of Commons for Stirlingshire, has propounded a plan for the promotion of settlement and the absorption of unemployed labour. He suggested the acquisition by the Government under the Act of 1929, of 134,000 acres of native land between Taumarunui and Taupo, carrying the last remaining block of totara and matai forest, valued by the Forestry Department at £3,747,500. Dr Chappie suggests that his land should be settled in conjunction with the British Government, under the Overseas Settlement Scheme, the advantages being at least two years’ development work and a large amount of sawmilling, and finally a great area of permanent settlement, until New Zealand’s surplus labour is absorbed.

Only a third of the settlement should be British-trained agriculturists, a third New Zealanders, and a third Maoris.

To this arrangement be believes he could induce Mr J. H. Thomas, the Dominions Secretary, to agree on behalf of the British Government. Dr Chappie says: “I am prepared to proceed to London and secure from the British Government under the Overseas Settlement Scheme, up to £1,000,000 at 2h per cent, for the purnose of roading, opening up and settling these areas, and of making the timber available for milling, as and when the market demands it.”

The scheme is being submitted to the Government.