MONEY WANTED

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3011, 23 February 1917, Page 6

MONEY WANTED

FOR RETURNED SOLDIER-FARMERS

THE STATE ALLOWANCE

ALLEGATION OF INADEQUACY

Allegations of inadequate financial assistance by tSie Government to returned soldiers who are going on the land were made at yesterday's meeting of the Advisory Board of the War Relief Federation.

Mr. W. Kirkwood (Tnranaki) moved that the Government advance of £500 to soldiers going on'the land should be increased to £1000. fie said that men were sometimes sent on to rough bush land, and Government advance was quite inadequate for such country. Anyhow, it was not a proper thing to put returned men on this rough land. Mr. Griuimond (Westland): It would be all right if he was a strong man, but not if he was an invalid. Mr. Kirkwood: Just so. Mr. Kirkwood took an instance where the Government was throwing open land on the Ohuro Block. He said that to get a return of £200 tho man would have to spend £1200, and he would only get money back.in the second year. For this land,- where the Government was advancing £500 the man would need to raise fully 100 per cent, more than the Government advanced, and, if he had to raise it on second mortgage he would have to pay through the nose for it.

Mr. Kirkwood wished to emphasise tho point that the Government was giving the returned soldiers nothing; it wanted everything back, and with interest, too; £500 was an absurd sum to start men on poor land with. For 200 acres ai sheep country £1200 was needed, and for 80 acres of dairying land, valued at £20 to £25 an acre, about £1000 was required. . Recently several men who were successful in the ballot were turned down because thoy had not sufficient money to finance the sections. A man went on to land in the Wairarapa and had had to apply to one of the Taranaki societies for £1000 because ho had not enough money to work the farm. If the Government had £100,000 earmarked lor this purpose an increase of the advance to £1000 would only mean a possible outlay of £200,000. The Government assistance was not a grant, it was an advance.; And the money the Government advanced was an investment; the Government got interest on it at 4 per cent.

Mr. Hope Gibbons (Wanganui) said he could not see why tho men going on tho land should get better treatment than men who wished to take up other avocations. A man who could not make a success of fanning with £500 io start on was not -the right man to go on tho land. Many men who were worth thousands now had started with nothing.

Mr. Kirkwood: Yes, when land was £6 or £8 an acre.

/ Hon. J. T. Paul said the attitude taken up by Mr. Kirkwood was right, unless .the Government was going to be more careful about tho land it was allotting ipr soldiers. The land was often rough and inaccessible, and required a man in the full possession of his powers. >,'

A delegate:-It is not compulsory to go on tho land. It is quite optional. Mr. Paul: I agree it is optional, but the soldier is being misled into thinking he is going to return to a paradise, and instead of that ho is sent to a wilderness. Mr. Paul thought the best land was in.proximiiy to a railway. To .put a soldier on virgin bush country was to put him where the chances were against him. He wished to see returned soldiers put where the chances were in their favour.

Mr. Hope Gibbons saidl Mr. Paul was wrong. These men needed to bo putwhere roads were in the making, so that they could earn money by working on the roads, in addition to tending to their farms. He,knew of cases where men had drawn "a prize," and in five years would be making £500 a year.

Mr. Kirkwood: Some returned soldiers are disabled. I' know of a man who went on the land and through having been shot in the shoulder he had the \ise of only ono arm. How could that man work on the roads ?

Mr. L. O. H. Tripp (Wellington): Yes. That man should not be sent-to a bush place.

Mr. Kirkwood l : That man drew a splendid place—one he could do well out of eventually—but the whole thing was 'that , he could not get enough money to finance it.

It was resolved to refer the matter to the Federation's Land Committee with the request- that it should present a report to .the next meeting of the Advisory Board.