A DOUBLE SCHEME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 155, 29 December 1938, Page 10

A DOUBLE SCHEME

LAND AND INDUSTRY

LARGE SCALE DEVELOPMENT

AREAS OF WASTE

(Special to the 'Evenino '**bst."i

AUCKLAND, This Day

Early consideration will be given by the Cabinet to the transfer of men from public works and from special employment works, as part of a Government plan for the cultivation of large areas of waste land in the Auckland Province, according to a statement made by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb). He added that the Government would endeavour at the same time- to increase the production of manufactured goods.

"Tens of thousands of acres of land in the King Country, the Waikato, the [Rotorua district, and in North Auckland will have to be retrieved for productive purposes," the Minister said. "Much of this land has gone back to second growth, and some of it is being gradually improved by the Lands Department. We hope to make use of modern machinery to clean up the stumps, logs, weeds, and other obstacles to cultivation, and we estimate that in this way the work of development will be carried out more quickly, cheaply, and efficiently than by the methods employed m tne past."

j The expenditure of large sums on . developing backblock areas appeared I uneconomic while there were such - large areas in scrub and 'swa.mp near r railways and roads, Mr. Webb con- . tinued. , The Government proposed to ; make men available as quickly as pos--1 sible from public works schemes to [ help in breaking in land. This would t be an extension of the arrangement ; by which men were now being trans- , ferred to the farms for seasonal work. Schemes of permanent value would be ■ undertaken during the winter and • spring to provide for these men dur- ! ing the off season. i As the small-farm schemes developed , it was hop,ed that many seasonal worki ers would be engaged on farm work i which would give them an "all-round 1 knowledge and a desire to take up farming. BALANCE IN INDUSTRY. "The Government also realises the need of • increased population," said Mr. Webb, "but in order to bring that about the secondary industries must be more vigorously developed. We cannot have a country of butterfat producers alone. A more balanced form of production is one of the essentials of larger production and orderly economic progress. It is realised, too, that before the secondary industries can expand to any great extent, artisans must be trained; "The immediate future demands a substantial increase in the number of skilled craftsmen. The effects of the depression years, .when many tradesmen drifted away from their trades to the unemployed ranks and have never returned to their former occupations, must be remedied., There is, in addition, the case of thousands of young men who missed the opportunity af learning a trade. "These, men are being cared for under scheme 13, and the great majority of them are giving, valuable service in carrying out works which would not Rave been tackled by the local authorities but for the inauguration of this scheme. However, we have transferred and will continue to transfer men from scheme 13 to private employment on the if arms and elsewhere as they are needed." ' Immediately after the holidays scheme. 13 would.be reviewed, added the Minister. Meanwhile the full-time subsidy for the works concerned would be continued until January 28. Whether the scheme was continued or not. the Government would thereafter provide for everyone able and willing" to work. - A WEST COAST EXPERIMENT. Special machinery costing £15,000 has been imported from England by a New Zealand firm tp demonstrate in the Buller district in February modern methods of clearing land, according to a statement made yesterday by the Minister of Labour, the Hon> P. C. Webb. "The firm's technical adviser, a man of vast experience of this class of work throughout the world, after making an inspection 'of the Buller "district, was J convinced that thousands of acres of good river land, now covered with logs, stumps, and blackberry, could be cleared economically," Mr. Webb said. "So sanguine is the firm of the success of its plan that it has agreed to provide a demonstration at its own cost with- : out having the Government committed to the expenditure of Id. "If the trials are successful, and personally I have no doubt that they will be, I am satisfied that the demand from farmers throughout New Zealand, who are handicapped by water-logged land, will be considerable," the Minis- j ter added. "If the trials are eminently satisfactory, and the Government is | convinced that it would be in the best interests of the country and of great help to struggling farmers, no doubt it.would organise work of this kind through the Public Works Department and thus enable farmers to bring into productive use land that is nol largely covered with stumps and undergrowth."