SMALL FARMS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 562, 20 June 1933, Page 5

SMALL FARMS

(Press Assn.—

IMMEDIATE DEVELOPMENT AS UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF STATEMENT BY MINISTER

-By Telegraph — Copvrlg ht\

Wellington, Monday. The immediate developmqnt of approximately 8000 acres, preparatory to settlement, was given tentative. approval at a recent meeting of the Small Farm Settiements Board. Within the next few months the board hopes to have at' least 20,000 acres in harid. The pesent areas are situated in the vicinity of Te Kuiti, Hamilton, Rotorua, Dargaville and Kaitaia. The Unemployment Board has intimated to the Sm&ll Farms Boards its willingness to consider proposals for establishing camps for unemployed in any loeality, and to undertake the reconditioning of abandoned , Crown securities or holdings subject to mortgage to the State. The importance of these activities in relation to unemployment is stressed by Hon. E. A. Ransom, who explains that if the areas were actually being settled they would afford openings for between 140 and 150 men, but the land was unimproved and had to be prepared for settlement so nearly double these numbers of men would be taken out of the ranks of the unemployed and given work in the way of clearing, stumping, reconditioning, road-making and fencing. The Minister said there was a strong demand for land under these .Conditions. "It is impossible to satisfy the whole of the applications on hand. The applicants themselves can materially assist the Organisation and development of the schemes by obtaining froni private owners the right to lease a certain portion of' their properties. If the applicants can obtain an option over a suitable atea at a reasonable" rehtal, with the right to purchase within a period of teh years sttch transactioii would be investigated inimediately, with a view to carrying out the development and ultimately taking off the unemployment register the men who had been regponsible for the initiation of the project."