A NEW AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMME 255 



buildings, with such cattle as may be necessary, 

 and sufficient working capital for one year's opera- 

 tion. Usually the farmer is not required to pay 

 interest on the capital cost for several years. Then 

 from 3 to 4 per cent, interest is charged and 1 per 

 cent, additional for the ultimate extinguishment of 

 the debt in thirty or forty years. 



Usually the state co-operates with the farmer by 

 providing advice and supervision from experts or 

 from the agricultural colleges. Efforts are made to 

 locate the farmers in a colony or village so that the 

 settlers will have some social intercourse. Schools 

 are provided, and recreation as well. Farmers are 

 aided to organize co-operative buying and selling 

 societies so that they can acquire goods at cost and 

 sell in the best markets. 



The state-aided settlements in all these countries 

 have been a success. They have not proved a 

 burden to the taxpayers in any country where the 

 plan has been carried out. In some instances they 

 have earned a profit. Under the stimulus of own- 

 ership the farmers have built better homes. Own- 

 ing only sufficient land for a single man to cultivate, 

 they have brought a larger acreage under cultiva- 

 tion. They have improved their live stock and 

 purchased more labor-saving machinery. They have 

 piped water to the dwellings and developed irriga- 

 tion projects. The number of live stock has been 

 so largely increased in New Zealand — and the same 



