LAND FOR SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2893, 4 October 1916, Page 8

LAND FOR SOLDIERS

GOVERNMENT APPEALS TO LARGE HOLDERS

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER

The following statement regarding the Government's plans to secure land for returned soldiers has been furnished by the Acting-Minister of Lands (oir Francis Bell): — ' "The Government desires to acquire oy purchase good land in all districts throughout the Dominion, and. wherever possible, in blooks of considerable area, in order that soldier settlements nmy bo constituted. A number of offers of email areas of good land, and a loss number of offers of larger areas of inferior land have been received. All such offers have been considered, and in somo cases purchases have been completed. But the principal purpose which the Government has iu view is not served by a mothod of desultory pur«hascs of small properties divisible into a few holdings arid separated by wido distances. Nor is it possible by that mothod to ensure acquisition of sufficient laud in all parts of Now Zealand to afford returned soldiers the opportunity of settling in or near the districts from which they enlisted.

"The Government has therefore resolved to make a public and general request to all owners of estates of considerable area to set apart portions of ■ their properties, consisting of some of the 'best land in each property, for settlement by returned soldiers, and to of- • fer to the Government for purchase at fair prices for that purpose the lands so sot apart. Good land in fairly large areas, divisible into a reasonable number of holdings, can only be secured by a general consent of the owners of larger estates .throughout New Zealand to sell parts of their properties. , And because such sales will enable the • Government of New Zealand to proride land for our soldiers who return from sorvice in the war, the Government trusts that its request will meet with hearty response from the owners. "The alternative of compulsory acquisition of the whole of several large properties would involve the expenditure of snms not perhaps in excess of the amount required for the purchase of parts of a much larger numbor of 'proporties, but if that alternative were adopted the areas provided for settlement would bo limited to a few districts, instead of being spread throughout the Dominion,- and a quantity of land would in most cases bo included which though profitable when hold in . largo areas might not be suitable for olose subdivision."