PLAN TO SETTLE SERVICEMEN ON LAND

Chronicle (Levin), 19 June 1946, Page 2

PLAN TO SETTLE SERVICEMEN ON LAND

— PrexA- Association

Rn T't.l.aarci.'nh-

WELLINGTON, June 18. Definite plans iiave "been prepared. to settle 6000 ex-servicemen on the land within the next four years, ab the rate of 1500 a year. This information was given hy the Minister of Rehahilitation, Major C. T. Skinner, when reporting to the Lahour Party conference, - "Of that total," Major Skinner said, "50 each year are to he settled on single farm units purchased through the State Advances Department, and 750 each year are to he settled on hlocks of land purchased hy the Lands Department for suhdivision. On these subdivisions the erection of 700 dwellings and other farm buildings will he required each year. . , "The cost of rehahilitating an exserviceman on the land is "approximately £6500 a settler, so that the total cost 1 of this programme will amount to ap proximately £5-1,090,000. ' ' The Minister said land worth- nearly £1,500,000 had hsen acquired for soldier settlement in the last three years with advances up to 100 per cent of the value of the land, and 3000 returned men had already heen settled. Over a quarter of a million acres were heing devcloped j at present, an effort that had never before been bettered.