Misleading Claim On Farming Says Mr. Newbold

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 51, 1 July 1965, Page 1

Misleading Claim On Farming Says Mr. Newbold

The claim that recently-settled farmers on Taupo pumice country found life good was misleading in the extreme, the chairman of the Taupo branch of the Labour Party, Mr C. J. N. Newbold, said yesterday. He was commenting on a remark by the Taupo Member of Parliament, Mrs Rona Stevenson, who said these farmers were "delighted" with conditions. Mr Newbold sags they will go through the same difficulties the original group at Oruanui did after the first flush of young grass wears off.

Of the original 15 settlers at Oruanui, one third had either been resettled or granted extra land by Government. This proved that conditions under which settlement was made were incompatible with present-day requirements. Further proof was to be found in the fact that, of the remaining settlers, three had been granted the use of extra land for a period and a further three had purchased by private treaty areas between 120 and 320 acres, went on Mr Newbold. "Despite the evidence before it, the Government persists in its opinion that the small additional area granted new settlers is sufficient. "Taupo's member can have very little knowledge of the basic facts of farming to believe what she told the House last week. And the new settlers themselves, flushed with the thought of owning their own land, can hardly be expected to eomplain yet."

The fact remained, Mr Newbold said, that farmers had been and were being shabbily treated by the Government with little thought for the future, either in sufficient land or protection for that land. "There is little recognition — despite what Mrs Stevenson says — of the problems of soil erosion and farmers are being left to cope with the damage dorie by development. "It is time our representative got close to the heart of these problems^ instead of congratulating the Government on things it has never really done."