LAND FOR SOLDIERS

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16435, 31 January 1919, Page 2

LAND FOR SOLDIERS

WIDE .MEANING OF "SOLDIER."

A CLEAR EXPLANATION. Numbers of men who were in camp, but had not an opportunity of active service oversea are eager for information as to their position in regard to land settlement under a clause of the new Repatriation Act. .An official explanation mentions that by this section of the Repatriation Act tixe of sections 2 and 3 of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, 1917, are extended to apply to all discharged members of the Expeditionj ary. Force, who, having been classed as medically fit for sei-vice beyond the seas, wore actually attached to a camp of military training as on November 12th last,* when the armistice with Germany was signed. Section 2of ,the D.S.S. Act gives the Minister of Lands authority, on the recommendation of the Land Board of the district concerned, to make advances for the purpose of assisting discharged soldiers towards— (a) The purchase of the fee-simple of any private land or Native land, together with the improvements thereon. (b) The acquisition by assignment or transfer of any lease of any Crown land, settlement land, or other land administered by a Land Board. (c) The clearing, fencing, draining, and general improvement (including the ! erection of buildings) of any land owned in fee-simplo by a discharged soldier. (d) The discharge of' any mortgage affecting any land owned in fee-simple by a discharged soldier, or affecting airland administered by a Land Board, and held by a discharged soldier under lease or license. (e) The purchase of. plant, implements, stock, seeds, plants, trees, and such other things as may be deemed necessary for the successful occupation of any land owned in fee-simple by a discharged soldier. Section 3 enables any discharged soldier, or any two or more discharged soldiers to make application to the Land Board with a view to the acquisition by the Crown on his or their bshalf of any private land. In one matter men who have not served oversea are excluded. They are debarred from taking part in ballots for Crown land. It was considered, when the law was made, that as the area of this land was distinctly limited it should be reserved for ballots of men who had been to the front, or were still there. Otherwise the land—or the best of it — might be parcelled out before the active service soldiers had a chance to go to a ballot.