LAND SETTLEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18622, 28 April 1932, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT.

AND THE UNEMPLOYED. VERY DIFFICULT PROBLEM. PRACTICAL SCHEME WANTED. (By Noel Britton.) My whole inclination Is towards the land' I want to ho on it •myself and 1 want to see lots of other people coming back to it. It has that fascination for me, as for many others, winch must have some very elemental and very powerful origin. You may approach a man who is unemployed and who, although he never dreamt of going on to the land in prosperous times, is now vastly attracted by the. prospect of a homo in the country with a i few cows, pigs, fowls and plenty to eat lie is probably quite honest, in Ids' sentiments and thinks if preeod- | ent. is any guide, very few of those ; "placed" on the land do actually make j good. The real farming class is made j up of those who are either brought j up to it or adopt agriculture lrom 1 choice as opposed to the practical ] coercion of hard circumstances. Human | nature is very constant in the aggie- j gate and the personal element is one of the chief contributing factors of failure in communal land settlement schemes. It would be outside the scopo of this article to go Into all the reasons but. I shall return to the principal reason —finance —later on.j I! appears that practically all pion-i coring settlement or colonising which i lies been successful is evolved natural'y and that artificial systems have (

generally failed. This should make us very careful and calls for a clear exposition of any proposed scheme. I have seen several suggestions for getting people back to the land and have been interested in them for their picturesqueness, but astounded by what j appears to me to be a neglect of the economic aspect.

Extensive Farming Better. This business of “ growing things," is desperately difficult, and it would be possible to quote examples without end of how through one cause or another, certain crops had not brought their owners any return. What, for instance. could you make out Of potatoes at present prices? Let anyone try to grow a crop of something for which their district is suited, and what profit do they make? There will always lie some reason to account for their failure but the failure will be there, a bad season, distance from the market, a glut, middlemen's .profits j and a hundred other reasons. For I small crops we cannot compete with I the C.hinese and even he goes banlc- ! rupl sometimes. The most stable form | of farming Is, iso far as experience shows, of an extensive type; yet most j set I lenient schemes —not all —envisage j an intensive type. Perhaps the authors of such schemes have in mind i nr even in sight some examples, the j accounts of two of which have been i reported in the papers. Briefly, both these eases were those of men, who, employed in a oily, took up u small section within reach, and in their spare, time, made a farmlel, and are I now nearly self-supporting. Most of jibe essential details on I he economic ifide are omilled. however, j How much capital is required to put a man on the land —what will that [capital be worth in a few years time?

I cannot answer the first question but the figure probably varies between £SOO and-£IOOO. The first requirement and a costly one is of course a house, and this must be big enough to accommodate | a family. Water supply and a road are the next requirements for any form of occupation. Then some buildings and implements are required and as all implements have a seasonal use they can only be shared by two or three people at most.* Transport is an important point and is not solved by a communal form‘’of collecting produce. If the settler and his family are to have access to a township, horses and a vehicle are required and all schemes that 1 have seen postulate the necessity for at least a couple of cows and some pigs. This immediately raises the question of grass land. Fencing posts run about £7 per 100 delivered and wire up to £‘2o. Even the garden must lie fenced. Then one thinks of all the thousand and one expenses on small matters, grass seed, manure, tools, perhaps also rent and rates. Even the lims have to he housed and food bought for them and it is quite certain that a family cannot he self-supporting, even as regards i eggs during the first 12 months. Ollier j Hems, with the exception of vegetables, j take longer. j The Government Schome. j There is just one main point of dif- | ferenco between Hits enterprise of land ' settlement ami almost any form of 1 commercial enterprise. The 'public, j will subscribe capital for the latter, i hut one or two shining examples on a large scale and ten thousand obscure local eases are sufficient, to prevent \nu raising one cent, to back indigent selll.ers with. That speaks for itself. Now 1 have tried to show that very!

few emergency settlers make good. What is this capital going to bo worth In a few years time? This cannot be answered in figures, but it can be presumed that the majority will walk off their holdings if times become prosperous again and they can get jobs in the towns. For practical purposes the capital has disappeared. I have mentioned all the difficulties which are apparent to a very superficial j observer and it may be said that 1 am of that very ordinary class—the destructive critic. That is so and 1 await the herald of some practical constructive scheme with eagerness. Since writing the above 1 have seen Mr Coates’ scheme and a hurried perusal of it impresses me favourably, but I do not consider that it really comes within the category I was discussing. It is politically inspired and i will he fostered for political reasons j and makes no attempt at being self- j ■supporters now or ever, its economies ' are national and it must bo financed j I'rOin public funds. Two opposing points of the scheme I strike me: — J Jt, lakes men in, we hope, fairly large, quantities from tbo cities j where in limes like these, unrest j and all maimer of evils are.fostered, j This scheme, as ail others, aims ; partly at increased production. j It will be seen from my previous! remarks that I do not think production ! will be much augmented, increased ! production is undesirable. Our one j and only market is already in a stale ! of very delicate adjustment and in-j creased production (subject !o (ittawa development), can only result in reduced prices.