G.—lo.

extent of the district and the scattered nature of the properties made the whole undertaking a lengthy and a difficult task. Eventually recommendations were submitted involving an expenditure of £33,300. New units were approved when the estimates were framed and others were added during the year, owing principally to the unemployment situation, increasing the number from 212 in 1930-31 to 456 in 1931-32. The new units brought in additional areas partly improved and stocked, with dwellings and some cow-sheds and yards, while old units increased both pasture and stock and carried out with their own labour subdivisional fencing, draining, and the erection of cow-sheds and yards. Unemployment Contracts. At the beginning of the winter of 1931 the closing-down of railway construction and other public works, the slump in prices for dairy-produce, the inability of European farmers to provide work, together with the failure of the potato and kumara crops, combined to press the northern tribes to ask for measures of relief. It was feared that some of the farms would be neglected, while settlers sought sustenance on unemployment relief works. The Unemployment Board had two months earlier made a special grant for the relief of Maori unemployment and distress through development work in the country, and provision was made from this source to assist the Natives in the North Auckland District. Special officers were detailed to investigate and report on the position, and on their recommendations unemployment contracts subsidized on the basis of the Unemployment Board's No. 4b Scheme were authorized, some on the official development schemes and others for private employers. These contracts are summarized in the following schedule : —

For clearing and preparing 4,303 acres of land, putting in 11 miles 31 chains of drains, splitting 12,000 posts, and erecting 47§ miles of fences the Unemployment Board assisted 602 men of Ngapuhi and other northern tribes and through them numerous families at a cost of less than £3 10s. a head. The cost to loan funds was £3,733, or about £6 2s. a head. These six hundred people did not ask for further assistance from unemployment funds until the winter of the present year. The work they contracted to do would, if others had been asked to do it, have cost half as much again. Actually the assistance rendered in this way inspired them to make such a response as to involve the sowing of nearly 2,600 acres more than were comprised in the contracts. The unemployment factor caused a variation in detail from the authorized estimates, but the actual expenditure over the two financial years ending the 31st of March, 1932, was kept close to the total approved by Cabinet.

Units assisted, Area occupied and stocked, as at 31st March, 1932.

8

Nature of Work, Cost, Subsidy, &c. ! ) s m0nt Private Employers. Total. I Bushfelling .. .. .. 1,558 acres .. 589 acres .. 2,147 acres. Scrub-cutting .. .. .. 1,051 acres .. 344 acres. .. 1,395 acres. Clearing gorse, stumping, grubbing, &c. 587f acres .. 150 acres .. 737f acres. Ploughing.. .. .. 24 acres .. .. 24 acres. Draining .. .. .. .. 911 chains .. .. 911 chains. Fencing— Erecting .. .. .. 3,044 chains .. 779 chains 3,823 chains. Splitting .. .. .r 10,900 posts .. 1,000 posts .. 11,900 posts. Splitting .. .. .. 1,000 battens .. .. 1,000 battens. Splitting .. .. 10 strainers .. .. 10 strainers. Palings for cow-shed .. .. 500 .. .. .. 500. Total cost.. .. .. .. £5,289 2s. 6d. .. £1,429 2s. 6d. .. £6,718 5s. Subsidy .. .. .. .. £1,555 13s. 9d. £514 0s. lOd. .. £2,069 14s. 7d. Total number of men employed .. 490 .. .. 112 .. .. 602.

Particulars. Mangonui. Hokianga. Bay of Islands. Kaipara. ' Total. ! 1930 units .. .. .. 79 58 61 14 212 1931 units .. .. .. 52 62 103 25 242 456 Area owned or occupied (Acres) 11,664 9,779 19,929 3,691 45,063 Area originally in grass (Acres) 3,952 5,018 6,095 1,930 16,995 Area developed and grassed— 1930-31 .. .. (Acres) .. .. .. .. 2,102 1931-32 .. .. (Acres) .. .. .. .. 5,780 Dairy-cows — 1930, units own .. .. 251 248 280 24 803 1931, units own .. .. 340 443 709 116 1,608 Authorized, 1930 .. .. 444 365 313 93 1,215 Authorized, 1931 .. .. 400 575 726 182 1,883 Total stock .. 1,435 1,631 2,028 415 5,509