CULTIVATING WASTE LAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 4, 6 January 1939, Page 10

CULTIVATING WASTE LAND

NEW GOVERNMENT SCHEME MANY ACRES IN KING COUNTRY AUCKLAND, Dec. 30. Early consideration will be given by the Cabinet to the transfer of men from public works and from special employment works, as part of a Government plan for the cultivation of large areas of waste land in the Auckland Province, according to a statement made yesterday by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb. He added that the Government would endeavour at the same time to increase the production of manufactured goods. “Tens of thousands of acres of land in the King Country, the Waikato, the Rotorua district and in North Auckland will have to be retrieved for productive purposes,” the Minister said. “Much of this land has gone back to second growth, and some of it is being gradually improved by the Lands Department. We hope to make use of modern machinery to clean up the stumps, logs, weeds and other obstacles to cultivation, and we estimate that in this way the work of development will be carried out more quickly, cheaply and efficiently than by the methods employed in the past.” Provision of Men The expenditure of large sums on developing back-block areas appeared uneconomic while there were such large areas in scrub and swamp near railways and roads, Mr Webb continued. The Government proposed to make men available as quickly as possible from public works schemes tc help in breaking in land. This would be an extension of the arrangement by which men were now being transferred to the farms for seasonal work. Schemes of permanent value would be undertaken during the winter and spring to provide for these men during the off season. As the small-farm schemes developed it was hoped that many seasonal workers would De engaged on farm work which would give them an allround knowledge and a desire to take up farming. Greater Population “The Government also realises the need of increased population,” said Mr Webb, ‘‘but in order to bring that about the secondary industries must be more vigorously developed. We cannot have a country of butter-fat producers alone. A more balanced foi*m of production is one of the essentials of larger production and orderly economic progress. It is realised, too, that before the secondary industries can expand to any great extent, artisans must be trained. “The immediate future demands a substantial increase in the number of skilled craftsmen. The effects of the depression years, when many tradesmen drifted away from their trades to the unemployed ranks and have never returned to their former occupations, must be remedied. There is, in addition, the case of thousands of young men who missed the opportunity of learning a trade. Reviewing Relief Scheme,) “These men are being cared for under scheme 13, and the great majority of them are giving valuable service in carrying out works which would not have been tackled by the local authorities but for the inaugura* tion of this scheme. However, we have transferred and will continue to transfer men from scheme 13 to private employment on the farms and elsewhere as they are needed.” Immediately after the holidays scheme 13 would be reviewed, added the Minister. Meanwhile the fulltime subsidy for the works concerned would be continued until January 28. Whether the scheme was continued or not, the Government would thereafter provide for everyone able and willing to work.