FARMING IN WESTLAND

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24905, 19 June 1946, Page 9

FARMING IN WESTLAND

GREAT POSSIBILITIES SEEN For many years the verdict of farmers who have visited the West Coast has been that the area offers great possibilities for farming, but has been badly neglected in this respect. West Coast farmers have a saying that the greatest farm pests on the Coast are the mines and the timber mills. A recent discussion at a hearing before the Westland Land Sales Committee seems to bear this out. “Here we have very good land, close to town, with the transport facilities excellent and a ready market provided, but yet we see one of the most neglected parts of the West Coast. In my district we would be ashamed to own it. Why is it like that?” asked Mr M. Wallace, chairman ol the committee, when hearing an application for the sale of a block of land suitable for farming purposes. “It is due to a lack of foresight and appreciation of the property’s possibilities,’ 1 said Mr G. F. ShallcrasS, valuer. ~ . “It is the same with many other neglected farms in the Grey Valley,” said Mt. Mulcare, also a member of the committee. “The men Jeave their farms lying idle while they take up Work in the mills and other industri“There does not seem to be much in the future of Westland unless we can galvanise farmers into activity, declared Mr Wallace. Mr Shallcrass said that people were gradually becoming interested in small farms, apd he had received many inquiries. ... , “There is sufficient fertile land between Greymouth and Hokitika to supply all the vegetable and milk needs of a city the size of Christchurch,” Mr Wallace commented, indicating that there was room for hundreds of farms between the two to Later in the hearing a State Advances Corporation valuer, Mr D. K. Kerr, said that whereas in Nelson there was a large demand for small farms only three applications had been received through the corporation on the Coast