OPPORTUNITY FOR UNEMPLOYED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 170, 11 March 1932, Page 4

OPPORTUNITY FOR UNEMPLOYED

j In an. article published in another column this morning a i contributor draws attention to the suitability of the lands in the i Kotorua and adjacen't districts for closer settlement and sug- I gests that this might profitably be taken advantage of by the Government in putting into operation its policy of helping unemployed workers back into productive avenues of employment. With this suggestion we unhesitatingly coneur. The settlement of lands now idle and unproductive is one of the Dominion's most urgent needs; in this district it is the most urgent. It is, of course much more easy to talk glibly about settling the land than to carry out that operation successfully. Often enough success is only to be won as the fruit of years of labour under conditions which severely test the stoutest heart and call for wide knowledge of the art and science of farming. But, as in other tields of endeavour, there are degrees of difficulty in the successful development of land and in this respect the Rotorua district is among the most favoured in the Dominion. This has * not always been so, the soils of the district presenting to the farmer problems peculiar to themselves which had to be solved before production on a really profitable basis was permanently assured. To-day, however, as a result of co-operative eifort on the part of settler and scientist these problems have either been definitely solved, or a solution is in sight and it is now possible to say without qualification of any kind that nowhere else in the Dominion can virgin soils so rapidly and cheaply and with so little labour be brought into a state of assured productivity. This being so, the district offers an unequalled opportunity to the Government to put into operation its policy of placing suitable unemployed men on productive work designed not only to provide them with a stop-gap relief occupation, but also to alford them eventually a permanent livelihood of economic value to the State. IDvidence in support of this has, in fact been provided in abundance by the Government itself. It is only necessary to visit the Guthrie settlement to see what can be done on pumice lands by the right class of settler within the remarkably short space of two or three years. Here, what but yesterday was idle scrub-land, is now a group of farms carrying healthy dairy herds and showing every sign of present modest success and future prosperity. Aeross the road is further evidence, if such is needed, on the JNgakuru Block, which is being developed by the Government itself and much of which is about to be thrown open to selection, while not far away are the Horohoro and other Maori settlement blocks, all showing equally encoufaging results after only a year or two's work. In view of all this, the Government will have to justify, not a decision to initiate a settlement scheme in this area for unemployed workers — we use the term advisedly — of whom there are thousands only too anxious to take advantage of such an opportunity, but a-failure to make an early start with the development of such a scheme. Indeed, by its attitude and actions in regard to this matter in the immediate future the sincerity of its professions may legitimately be judged. The responsible IVlinister, Mr. Coates, has said that it is his ambition and intention to get the unemployed, until now engaged largely in *work on the roads, "over the fenee" and on to the land. He admits that one of the Dominion's greatest needs is increased primary production as a set-olf to the fall in the prices of primary products, and claims that he has evolved a scheme which will both realise his ambition and meet this pressing need. The idle Rotorua lands provide him with an almost ideal opportunity to put his scheme into immediate operation and because of the ease and cheapness with which they can be brought •to a state of production they should be the first to be so utilised. ; These facts should, without further loss of time, be brought as forcioly as possible to Mr. Coates's notice by means qf joint representations by local bodies and representative organisations and cjtizens throughout the district.