PLENTY OF WORK.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17993, 11 April 1930, Page 9

PLENTY OF WORK.

(To the Editor.) an —We read in daily papers about parent local bodies recommending the • Government to put men on to the land, / hut they do not seem to put many ideas c , forward to place them there. To my mind there is only one way of getting land settled —that is to give the settlers . a clear title at the end of the term, the same that is given under the Advances to Settlers’ Loan scheme after a cer- • t«'o period. Any man who takes up ' land likes to think that he is making r.-.a home for himself and his family lor .■> . future years. My personal opinion is that the average worker, if given a jichance, will try and make good. Of • course there will bo some failures, but • ...1 think 80 to 90 per cent, would make ~t good if helped in .a reasonable way. -.-The Government tells us that there is .£5,000,000 to do the business with, so 1 think we should get to w'ork straight away and get the scheme going. My planwould be: take up a block of 2000 •A acres; appoint a practical experienced -man to take charge, divide it into 100Aacre farms, not forgetting water supply ■ 'to as many farms as possible; fence ■r-i farms oil with sheep and cattle-proof get about four tractors with , ploughs to plough the land, then clisc•c" harrow and cultivate to put in grass. ■ J: ~ i would only put up good boundary .• fences to make sure of always having

: good neighbours (bad fences make bad , rTj. neighbours) , the buyer to put up his own dividing fence where suitable. ~r Then build a five-roomed house and t cowshed, which could be built of good n, timber from Government sawmills for £450; shed, say £100; concrete yards, -? say two windmills and troughs, £200; v 100 chains of fencing for each farm, £100; total, £BSO. The cost of putting in grass-seed would be: Ploughing £1 per acre, disc- ,. ing three times 9s, rolling and harrowing ss, drilling seed and manure 3s, ; brush harrowing Is, total cost of labour £1 18s, manure (3cwt. per acre) 15s, 301 b mixed grass-seed pre acre £1 11s 6d, total cost of seed, labour and manure per acre £4 4s 6d, making the above total £422 10s; house, building shed and fencing,. £850; total cost, • £1272 10s. Taking above cost and put same under the Advances to Settlers’ Loans at 5£ per cent, would work out, with sinking fund, at somewhere about £BO per year. The man paying that would > be making a home for himself and family. I would then provide him with, saw 20 good cows, and putting their output at the lowest at £lO per cow, this would nett him £2OO yearly. If home separating w ? as done he would be able to keep a few pigs on skim-milk, which should yield another £2O. Besides keeping fowls, growing root crops such as onions, potatoes and vege.l tables for his home would fetch his cost of living down very low. That could be done on half of his farm, 50 acres, so the other 50 acres could be used for a few sheep and cattle graz- • ing, which under ordinary circumstances w'ould yield him another, £SO yearly, making a total of £270 yearly. ■ Yearly interest, say £80; manure, say per year £6O; total, £l4O. That wmuld leave him £l3O per year / to live on. I am putting receipts at a 7 very low average, that.is for the first year; but he. must not forget the start is always the,hardest. • The above estimate I consider wmuld be applicable to practically any part of New' Zealand where land is suitable, and there are ' '■ thousands of acres that could be brought in on about that estimate, if the district is only suitable for agriculture, then the above terms wmuld be nearly the same. I would only appoint a tactful, experienced man as overseer, each overseer to have charge of, .say 20 farms, to inspect and advise in the working of land and buying of stock; no stock to be bought except under his supervision for the first year. The ' money for stock wmuld have to be under the usual -bill-of-sale to the Government. There does not seem to me any other way where the lessees are hard- up. In the above scheme a man and his wife, if suitable, could carry on and have a comfortable living. There is plenty of country where 50 acres is ideal for dairy-farming better than 100 acres if situated suitably, which wmuld mean double settlement. In getting applicants for farms I would only take those whose character was good, and those married with families for preference to start with; then married with no families; then single, whom I would give 50 acres. By doing this it would be helping the man that had the most mouths to feed and the young generation wmuld grow with the farm and the country would be settled naturally and a lot quicker. Fifty-acre farms w-ould be more suitable if the land would' carry 25 cows. I would let the milking be done by hand, till

the finances were better. All the above suggestions are made on the understanding that it is unimproved land which is to he dealt with. The more farms we break in the better for the unemployed in New Zealand. I would not touch improved farms; they will always keep on prodneing by someone, but if we could get 1,000,000 acres of unimproved land and break it in it would mean that 1000 more families would he in a fair way to make a home for themselves, as well as a decent living. The Government would sec that a school was built. For a young couniry like New Zealand we should have no Goublc in dealing with unemplnjmc! T taken up in a practical nuumr o matter wh/it Government is in p r it is its bounden duty to pusli i problem to a successful issue, i feel that my estimates are somewhat near the mark, but I should be obliged if someone better than I could formulate or improve on the above scheme. —I am, etc., P. J. PHILPQTT. Morrinsville.