HISTORY'S LESSON

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3195, 25 June 1932, Page 5

HISTORY'S LESSON

TEN-ACRE SCHEME TRIED OUT YEARS AGO.

ALL HOLDINGS LONG SINCE ABANDONED.

Launched with the best intentions in the world, it yet remains to be seen whether the ten-acre scheme will prove an unqualified suecess, says the Eltham Argus. In making this statement we have in -mind the fate of the village settlement scheme which two or three decades ago the late Mr Richard Seddon, then Prime Minister, brought into being* right at Eltham's back door, at Rawhitiroa, as a matter of fact. With no small flourish of trumpets on the part of the politicians and much laudation from the press, a score or so of ten-acre farm allotments were made available on the stretch of country lying between the Rawhitiroa School and the "Rawhitiroa factory. Several sections, too., were taken up a bit further out. Now the land was as good as land as there is to be. found in Taranaki and the sections were all readily taken up, but where are these smiling little homesteads to-day? History, in this connection, points an interesting moral. A GOOD START.

The selectors of these 10-acre blocks were given every encouragement by the State. It paid them for falling the bush on the land and allowed them something toward building a house and fencing and for grass seed. While the road work consequent upon the opening up of the surrounding country for settlement was going on, the ten-acre selectors found ample employment, which was supplemented by the returns froin their small holdings, the work on which was mostly carried out by the womenfolk and children. As soon as the road work was finifeheu and there no longer existed, any avenue for steady employment in their immediate vicinity, the selectors one by one commenced to abandon their holdings. It was invariably found that ten-acre plots were too small. ALL GONE! The result is that, to-day, not one of the original 10-acre holdings exists at Rawhitiroa, or rather retains its identity as it were. All have been merged with larger farms, most of them having been " snapped up " by one or two adjoining land-owners. Only one selector is left, and he, although having sold his section, still retains a life-tenancy of the cottage erected thereon. In some circles it is felt that for the small farm plan to be a success, the allotments must not be grouped. On the contrary they should be scattered, two or three to each district, thus ensuring a ready and not overstocked market for the labour of their holders among the surrounding farmers. Carried out with this safeguard the scheme will have greater chances of ultimate success.