SMALL FARMS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 227, 7 September 1933, Page 7

SMALL FARMS

HASTINGS AREA ANOTHER 70 ACRES AVAILABLE MAKING TOTAL OF 107 AOREB. UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD’S DECISION. The purchase of a further seventy acres of land as a part of the Hastings small farm settlement scheme has been decided upon by the Unemployment Board, and the area now available for the carrying out of the scheme has thus been increased to approximately 107 acres. This announcement was made today by Mr. H. M. Campbell, M.P., who stated that the Unemployment Board’s decision had been conveyed to him by Mr. J. S. Jessep, deputy-chairman of the board. The additional seventy acres is situated next to the block of thirty acres which, as was announced in the “Tribune” last week, the Unemployment Board approved as a beginning of the scheme. In conveying this information to the “Tribune,” Mr. Campbell expressed his firm conviction that the scheme would be a complete success, particularly in the direction of enabling seasonal workers to take up holdings and sustain themselves, and even add largely to their ordinary earnings, in the periods when their normal work eeases or becomes slack. “This is what I have been advocating for the past six or seven years,” added Mr. Campbell, “and I am sure that it means, to any good worker who takes up a holding, putting himself in an excellent position. The land is flood-free and very rich, and I feel sure that the scheme will be a tremendous success. After the purchase of the first thirty acres, representations were made to Mr. Jessep to increase the area to the size that it has now assumed, and I for one would like to thank him for his promptitude in acting upon the suggestions that I and others have made to him.” WELCOME NEWS. The Unemployment Board ’r decision will be welcome news to everyone in this district, for it will mean not only the placing of a considerable number of families in better circumstances, but a by no means inconsiderable addition to the advancement of the town and of the farming industry. The launching of the scheme is the result of untiring efforts begun several years ago by a Hastings Chamber of Commerce committee, of which Mr. H. R. French is chairman, and continued by that committee, by Mr. Campbell, and others. Little success met the early attempt to have the scheme adopted, but persistence has brought a most happy reward. The local scheme was planned long before the Government’s small farm settlement scheme, and is the first of its kind in New Zealand. “It has splendid possibilities,” said a local farmer when the board’s decision was made known to him by a “Tribune” representative to-day, “and I can see in it an excellent opportunity of putting into practice in this country the communal system of fanning carried out by the French, who, at least among the class of smallholders, pool much of their labour and machinery, and thus save time, labour, and money. “This is excellent news,” the farmer concluded, “and I am sure that, with the right type of man, it will be a most decided success. Much ean be done with such good land so handily situated, and the man who obtains a section is a man to be envied.”