RESETTLEMENT IN ENGLAND

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 196, 4 September 1937, Page 15

RESETTLEMENT IN ENGLAND

Families of Miners Long Unemployed are Being Trained so that in the Course of Time they will be Established on the Land Self-Reliant and Independent.

^ kew DKIVE in land settlcment has startcd in England, writes J. Henderson Stewart, M.P., in the Christian Science Monitor. Two thousand faniili©a of unemployed miners are being established on smallholdings in uniquo circumstances. If tho experiment is successful, a- great expansion may follow, involving tlie transfer from town to country of 100,000 people. For 50 years politicians in Britain have been talking "back to the land." Jesse Collina aimed at two acres and a cow; in Seotland, before the World War, the cry was for crofts in the Highlands and 50-acre holdings in the south; a year of two ago Mr. Lloyd George, bundling all the policies into one demanded an all-roond increase in the agricultural population of no less fhan 500,000 persons. Much has already been done. The county councils in England and the Department of Agriculture in Seotland already administer tipward of 100,000 smallholdings, but except for a retumed soldiers' scheme at the end of the World War, land sottlement facilities have so far been confined almost entirely to skilled and semi-skilled men with capital resourees. When, four years ago, unemployment was approaching the 3,000,000 mark, and 1,000,000 middle-aged men seemed fixed in idlenees, it became apparent that the conditions governing entrance to the land must be amended. Tho county councils had no power to relax their iinancial restrictions^ and to overcome the difnculty a new organisation was formed under the title of the Land Settlement Aasociation. The association deals exclusively with unemployed families. They begin at the logical start of things by carefully selecting the men whom they are to establish. Many a echeme has failed in the past on account of unsuitable personnel. Careful examination is mado of the personal history of each applicant; he and his wife are interviewed together and later visited in their 0 own home. Only tho best volunteers are taken — they represent a"bout 40 per cent. of those interviewed. On orrival at the settlement, each man is given 15 months' intensive training uiider tho guidance of experts in the various branchcs of the work. Buring this timo he continues to draw his iull unemployment allownnces, together with an additional training allQWance of 4 /• a week. The'average trainoo with wife. and family receives in this way about £2 per week, out of which he ia required to pay rcnt for his house. Before the ilrst^ man was iseleeted the association had to make up its mind on the type of production to be undertaken. Certain products were immediately ruled out. Beef, mutton, wheat, corn and milk were already supplied to the maximum markct capacity by large farmors; if any additions were needed they could be orovided by increased production from existing holdings. • There remalned chiefly pigs, poultry, fruit, iibwers and vegetables. All these are lines pcculiarly suited to small-scale production, where individual care has a cash vahio. Moreover, the xuarket for these prodiacts is steadily expanding. The normal settlement eoutains between 50 and 100 smallholdings, varying in size from three toten acres each. Each settlement is

under the cnargti ox a resident warden wbo is respousible for general administration, training of the men, supplving of central services and supervision of marketing machinery. The average holding costs £1000 to forin, £700 representing land, dwelling house and permancnt equipment, the remainder working capital in tho form of livestock, implements, feeding stuffs, etc. Most of the men npw being settled are drawn from the special (depressed) areas and the wliole cost of such settlements is met out of the Special Areas Fund, that is to say, by tho Government. A fair return is charged for the permanent equipment and thc sums advanced as working capital. The total payment of the smallliolder works out at about 11/- per week. At the end of the training period the trainee is given a yearly tenancy of his hold-

ing and from that date ceases to oraw unemployment allowance and becomcs dependent upon his own efforts. It is reeognised, however, that he is still incapable of being left to his own devices^ and to assist his early efforts the services of the warden and his staff are retained for a number of years on each settlement. Sueh services include, in addition to instruction and advice, ploughing, harrowing, transport, the use of stud boars, etc., operatecl centrally and charged for at cost prices.

A.nother chief function of the warden and .ne central farm ie i o manage the marketing side of the business. A eondition of tenancy on every holding is that the tenant must buy and sell all his gooda through the central co-opera-tlve department. Co-operation is thus compulsory, one of the first examples of its kind in English agriculture. The headquarters of the associatim in London is in touch with all the large markete in the country and is able to make forward arrangements with agenta, transport companies and saiesmen at costs considerably below those borne by individual producers. Information is sent from headquarters to the •various estates daily during the season and goods are dispatched accordingly, In the same way bulk purchases are made of all kinds of farm requisites, ieeding stuffs, and even domestic items such as coal and flour. It follows from these arrangements that the iinances of each smallholder are managedon his behalf* by tho association. The association, in fact, is baiiker for all its tenants, a system whick satisfies the tenants and safeguards the intereets of the association. It will be seen tbat the new land settlement plan ilas five main features, namely (1) careful selection of men, (2) training, (3) provision of working capital, (4) central farm services, and (5) co-operative marketing. Individually, these features are not novel, but never before have they Been operated together in any land settlement schme. The scheme is at present limited to 2000 holdings. Within the next two years it may double in stze, but ia not likely to extend further at thie'*sEage. Its purpose is mainly experimontal. The association has been invited to show whether it is praotically possible to trans- ■ fer an unemployed industrial wofker to the land and make him a successful smallholder. I anticipate that in three or four years' timo the Government may iset up a commission of inquiry to Teport upon the scheme. If the report is satiefactory, the Government may then launch a blg programme. The effeclT oi the scheme is not confmed to England. The new association is building up a potential supply of tirst-class emigrauts for the Dominions. Tho gates of Canuda, Australia, New Moaland and South Africa are meanwhile closed to land workers from England, but oue day they will open again and England' will be called upon to supply a frosh stock of flrstclass manpower. The smallholding scheme now being operated may prove of the highest value in that conneetion. For it is not only training men; their children also are being brought up to understand animals and the mysteries of the soil. They are becoming country-bred and 1 love of tho land is growing in them, In 19 years they will be adult men and women seeking independent farm life. The call of the Dominions will jfind in them a ready response. England, in fact, is wakening to ibs agricultural and imperial xesponsibilities. For years after tha World Ws*r, farm and Empire seemed to be neglected. To-day, under the stress of international anxiety, agriculture had become ve-born and is quicldy developing. Thc. change will have its counterpart in the development of the Empire. i