MINISTER'S WARNING

Chronicle (Levin), 7 February 1948, Page 5

MINISTER'S WARNING

Press ASs&eiLilctti) -

Farms For Servicemen Will Be Commandered .

(Per

WELLINGTON, Feb. 6. ■An intimation that the C9111pulsory elattses of the ServiceRieii's Settlement and Laiicl Bales Aet tvouM now have to be miicle more use of, was given by the Minister of RehabiiitatioiR Hoil. C. F. Skinner, at the moiithiy meeting of the ftehabilitatioii Board, it was amioimced tonight. Mr. Hkiimer said, there had been a falJilig off in the amount of land offered voluntariiy for the settLenient of serviceineii. •'It looks as though we shall have to give more publieity to our intention to use part 2 of the Aet to. a , much greater extent, said the Minister. ''I think we can safely say that anyone who had thought of selling land for settlement purposes, has had plenty of time to do sot They have had at least three full years. We can now assume tliat, except in isolated cases, those contemi3lating the sale of some oi their land for ihe settlement oi' ex-servieemen, would have come forward by now."

- In its report to Parliament last year, "the Rehalhlitation Board revealed that the total area of land purchased specifieally for exservicemen to March 31, 1947, wai 442,119 acres, of which 320,257 acres had lieen aequired by voluntary ncgotiafion, 36,767 acres liao been purchased under. the compulsory provisions of part 2 oi" the Aet, and 85,095 acres had been actpiired under section 51 of the Acf. The total mentioned, it was stated, did not include^reas pre'yiously owned by the Crown which are reviewed'from time to timo and if considercd suitabJe for ihe scttiement of ex-servieemen, I are handed over for this purpose. Tiie iioard's report made clear the interesting l'act that early estimatos,. oi' the numliers oT returned men interested in becoming farmers, had fallen short of reaiity. Originally ■ it was liiought 8000 men would require land for -farming but latest figures available when the report was made, showed the total had swellcd to a 10.000 minimum. To the end of March last, 3609 men had been settTo'd on their own farms and with . the developmeilt of settlement blocks and the pure.liase of existing eeono.mic single units with rehabilitation loan assistance, the number of men settled on the land by the end of the 1948-49 season, it was estimated, would reach 6500. *