LAND FOR SERVICEMEN

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24895, 7 June 1946, Page 9

LAND FOR SERVICEMEN

Sir,—lf the Government wants more wheat let it get it, but why grow it on the blocks already allotted to former servicemen and upset their plans for next season? Surely we have done enough for our country already, and we want to get into production while the good prices last, not during a slump. Why not force the farmer who has been making his fortune on small seeds to do some good for the starving and grow wheat? Does the willing soldier have to fight the war and the famine besides? The Government would get more butter, meat, and wheat if it got a move on and put the former servicemen on their own blocks. Mr Skinner says, “Their sections would not be put down if final settlement would be delayed.’’ If- a former servicemen said he did not want wheat, what then? Out on his neck. I guess.—Yours, etc., EX-SERVICEMAN

May 15, 1946. [Commenting on this letter, the Minister of Rehabilitation (the Hon. C. F. Skinner) says: “I feel that the correspondent has not fully appreciated the terms of my original statement to the press, in which I stated that ‘faith will be kept with these men, and their sections will not be wholly or partly sown in wheat if their final settlement will thereby be delayed.’ Surely no excuse is called for in the use of every possible piece of land under the Government’s control to grow wheat, in view of the acute food shortage overseas; and I am sure that ‘Ex-Service-man’ and others awaiting settlement will appreciate the justice of the Government’s policy. I am as anxious as anyone to accelerate the present rate of land settlement,, and repeat that wheat will not be put down on any block if the final settlement of the men working on that block with the Sromise of a lease will be delayed. fo wheat will be put down on to sections already allotted; and in the case of land still under development by the Lands Department, the wishes of the men concerned will always be taken into account. If ‘Ex-Service-man,’ or anyone else in the same position, definitely refuses to have wheat sown on the section he draws, I assure him that action will hot be taken against those wishes. In conclusion, I would ask ‘Ex-Serviceman’ how he could expect the Government to encourage private farmers to grow their share of wheat without playing its part by utilising the blocks under its control. I might add that all Crown land capable of successful development has been ear-marked for the ultimate settlement of ex-servicemen; and I am sure the fairness of the Government’s policy will be apparent after full consideration.”]