THE "LOCUM TENENS"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 263, 30 June 1932, Page 4

THE "LOCUM TENENS"

With the departure of the Minister for Employmenjt, ' Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, to Ottawa, it will be interesting to observe the attitude of his "locum tenens," Hon. Adam Hamilton toward the problems with which Mr. Coates has been wrestling since he assumed the Employment — Unnniployment portfolio. During the brief few months since he asscmed Cabinet rank, Mr. Hamilton has conveyed a welcome impression of driving force, and his refreshingly definite attitude toward the reorganisation of the local body system, augurs v/eF for the spirit in which he will handle unemployment. Undoubtedly, the Minister will need all his driving force, and all his courage to handle the situation as it should be handled — without vacillation and muddling in half measures. It will be particularly interesting to ascertain lur. Hamilton's attitude towards that fondly cherished child of his predecessor — the small farm scheme. At the present time, the small farm seheme has met with a fair, but luke-warm reception, and it is yet too early to predict the extent of the results which it is likely to achieve. In some districts, such as the Waikato, Manawatu, and the more closely settled areas of Otago and Southiland, we think it should estaU ; lish itself successfully with reasonable prospects of increasing production and permanently absorbing a proportion of the unemployed. In the more intensely cultivated and closely settled areas, settlement on small sections, subsidised by casual labour on neighbonring farms is a practical possibility, but there are other districts, of which Rotorua is an outstanding example, wherfe conditions are entirely different. In more sparsely settled and less developed areas, the small farm scheme cannot be generally applied with any reasonable prospect of success. In the first place there is not sufficient rural settlement to fraarantee the small farm settler

any proportion of casual work, and in the second place, suitable areas for small farm sections, are difKcult to find. We hazard a guess that this will prove to bo

the case in the Rotorua district. A number of sections, it is true, are being considered in connection with the scheme, but in actual practice, there appears to be very little scope in this district for setting up more than a few isolated small-farms. This fact does not necessarily imply that the scheme itself is unsound — as we have already pointed out, it has good prospects of success in suitable districts — but it does emphasise the point, that it cannot be generally applied throughout the country.. This fact must be recognised, and provision made for the individual needs of districts which do not lend themselves to the general success of the small farm scheme. Definite proposals for land settlement in the Rotorua district have recen4 • ly been brought forward, anc. particularly those enunciated by the Mayor, Mr. T. Jackson, haye been pushed forward considerably further than the stage of the mere proposition. These proposals are designed to meet the special requirements of the district, they are brought forward by men fully qualified through their local and practic i. knowledge, and they offer definite prospects of really eco.iomic land settlement. In cases such as this, it is most sincerely to he hoped that the Minister for Employment pro tem, will not endeavour . undifiy fo fqrce the 0 »

small farm scheme in districts which are not adapted to its purposes, but will use discriminatioii in investigating any other proposals which may be more suited to strietly local conditions.