LAND FOR THE WORKERS

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19565, 2 May 1935, Page 6

LAND FOR THE WORKERS

Much has been heard recently about the provision of land for unemployed, and already considerable progress has been made in the development of such schemes in England, Scotland, and in the province of Quebec in Canada. In the latter country about 11,000 families and single men have been settled on the land during the past three years under a rural colonisation scheme for the relief of unemployment. So far this scheme appears to have been remarkably successful. Families entirely on public relief are given credit to the amount of £l5O, and a grant of 100 acres of land for which the family will ultimately pay a very small sum. It must be understood that the conditions of settlement there are very much more strenuous than those which unemployed in this country would be expected to face. These colonies are on lightly forested land which must be cleared by the settler. The men go first to the colonies, living in railway trains or board shacks during the three or four weeks needed to build a home. Then the family comes, and the building and moving are done during the winter when travelling is easier on account of the land being frozen, for there are, as yet, no roads. It can be well imagined how unemployed in this country would view the prospect of having to settle on land under conditions such as these.