SMALL FARM SCHEME

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 32, 8 February 1933, Page 8

SMALL FARM SCHEME

THE COST TO DATE

UNDER £200,000

The cost to date of the ten-acre plan of unemployment relief has been £176,000, representing approximately £260 per family placed. Approved propositions to 28th January totalled 684, and the actual number settled, either on small farms or as share-milk-ersj totalled 499. The average rental per settler works out at roughly £9. This information was given to the House of Eepresentatives last night by the Minister of Finance (the Eight Hon. J. G. Cbates), who revealed that of the number assisted under the scheme over 50 per. cent, to-day were no longer receiving a penny piece from the Unemployment Fund by way of sustenance allowance. The Minister declared that at the present time there were between 8000 and 9000 applications from people who wanted the opportunity of taking up a small piece of land. They were pleading for a chance to become settlers. The scheme as sponsored by the Small Farms (Belief of- Unemployment) Bill meant committing^ the unemployment funds for some 'years ahead, but against this was the prospect of the permanent absorption of numerous families on the land. Was it not better to pay a man £1 to £1 5s a week on one of the small holdings until such time as hs could_ establish himself than to continue paying upwards of £2 10s a week on work that held no future for him? As already mentioned over half of those already settled were receiving no assistance from the funds. Those being helped received allowances ranging from 5s to £1 a week. To date the small farms approved totalled 418, the sharemilking propositions amounting to 266. The liability was as follows:—3sß small farms at £230, £82,000; 60 small farms at £450, £27,000; 216 share-milkers at £265, £58,(}00; 50 share-milkers at £175, £9000; total, £176,000, equalling £200. per family. The total settled as at 28th January was: Small farms, 308; sharemilkers, '191; total, 499. Quoting typical examples of .successful settlement, this Minister said that in. ones case 18 settlers,. all of whom were previously unemployed, "..-ere with their families milking an. average of twenty cows each. They were receiving nothing from the Unemployment Fund. They had their herds and they would be able to pay their way. Under the legislation now before Parliament holdings of 50 to 60 acres were envisaged, with, a carrying capacity of a cow to .two and a half acres. Reference was made also to the settlement of the property of Dr. Smith at Eaweno, where, said the Minister, 970. acres were leased at 8s an acre. The area had been divided into 18 holdings on which 18 unemployed families with's6 children had been established. Over 200 cows were being milked, and an additional 200 would be milked in the coming season provided the present holders could arrange the finance. The establishment expenses of each family had been below £250, so that the rentals were below £1 a week for each holding. , ; '