SOLDIER SETTLERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 124, 12 February 1918, Page 5

SOLDIER SETTLERS

impossible to gel Toofing-iron from England ai present. A quantity had been obtained for New Zealand some time ago, but ho was doubtful whether it would bo possible to get any more from England. It might bo possible to get it from America, and he would have inquiries mado both in America and in England. Soldiers' Homes. Replying to a question, Mr. Massey ' eaid that any aid to be given in tho matter of supplies of material would ' be given to all soldier settlers in need ' of "help, whether they had been put on their selections by tho Government [ or not. In his opinion tho men who ' were establishing homes for them- '. selves wero just as much entitled to assistance as those who had taken up I land :firom the Government. When 1 conditions approached more nearly to '■ normal he honed that the Government 1 would bo doing a great deal more in 1 the matter of helping soldiers to make ' homes for themselves.. Hβ thought 1 there would be many inquiries for these soldiers' homes as soon as the !. Government could get the scheme going. The. difficulty at present was the 1 cost of material, for if homes were to be built now the cost to the men taking them up would necessarily be ' heavy. The scheme would be similar ' to that, now in operation as applying to workers' dwellings, and it would be possible to apply it to soldiers without '. much amendment. Lucky selectors. i He had taken a great personal interest in the land settlement scheme for the benefit of soldiers, and anything that he could do to make tho scheme a success he would bo glad to do. He was happy to think that some of tho soldiers seemed to have become possessed of very valuable properties, Mr. Harper: Some of them are doin.fr very well. Mr. Massey said that he had been informed that one man had a goodwill of £4000, slid he would be £lad to hear of other soldiers becoming possessed of equally valuable' sections. P seems to he a favourite initial for ' famous musicians. No fewer than seven names can be recalled —Patti, ' Paderewski, Pachmaun, Pujjno, Piante, 1 Puccini, and Sir Walter Parratt. 'Of Paclnnann rather a nice story is told by his intimateß. It was a favourite po3e of the, pianist that he knew Chopin, and that he was the source of all his ■ inspiration. One day Pachmann was sitting in the stalls listening to his divorced wife, the late Careno, playing one of the ballades, when he drew an old sock from his pocket and wept copiously. "This," said he, in a whisper, to his neighbour, "belonged to my friend Chopin." Unhappily, Pachinann's secretary overheard the remark, and the pianist, foreseeing a general twitting about the incident among his friends, bribed his secretary to silence by promising to invest in a new hat— a : thing they had been trying for months to mako him get. After a spell at the front army officers are sometimes apt to forget tho niceties- of military etiquette. The other afternoon at Victoria station a commanding officer was spotted by a member of the .military police, who reminded the homecomerthat he was not carrying his gloves. "Gloves!" exclaimed the C. 0. "Where I como from you're often lucky to appear in trousers!"

??■.«■ •:■■■ ——♦— -— . REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE FENCING AND BUILDING MATERIAL Several questions regarding the settlement of soldiers on land were mentioned by a 'deputation of the Now Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association which waited upon tho Prime Minister yesterday Mr. Harper said that the deputation wished to bring under tho notice of ■the Minister the necessity for supplying fencing wire and building material to rotunied soldiers going on to land selected by them. They understood from a letter received from the Prime Minister tihat the difficulty was to get material already purchased shipped to • this country, and the difficulty, in this regard was due, they unders'tfood, to the shortage of shipping. But the association had learned that private firms were able to get supplies of wire, and the association would like to'know'how it was that tl.e Govern- ' ment could not get it also. Mr. Massey: We can beat private firms everv time. You need not trouble about that. Mr. Harper said that the association had heard of men who had recoiv- ' ed wire from the Government, and of Bome who had been unable to. get it, and tihq . information was . that t!he price charged by the Government w : as not much lower tlian that charged by the private firms. The men also had difficulty about tho,transport of the ' wire to their sections. This applied also to building material. Mr. H. Haycock mentioned roofingiron as one of the supplies that the soldier settlers were unable to obtain. Mr. Massey said that the" Government had never undertaken to, supply roofing-iron. Mr. Haycock said that this -was one of the supplies of which the men stood in most urgent need, and he would ask what was the prospect of tho Government helping-the settlers by procuring this material for them at the lowest possible cost. These and other membeis of the de- ' putation referred also to returned soldier's' clubs, in much the.same terms ' as they did at a deputation soon afterwards to..the Hon. Gγ. W. Russell. Mr. Massey would nothing to say about the points on which the deputation disagreed with the reported statements of Mr. Russell. Hβ expressed general approval of the clubs, and expressed the opinion that when the deputation heard Mr." Russell they would have no difficulty in coming to a satisfactory understanding with him. No Ships. Replying on the other questions, Mr. Massey said that tho chief difficulty in the way of supplying unlimited, quantities of wire or other material was the scarcity of shipping. ' Tho wire coming to the order of the Government had been purchased some time ago. The order was for 134 tons. Of this quantity five tons had come to hand, and the agents from whom the Government had purchased the wire had advised that the rest of the wire was on the way. He was not sure as to what the cost would be, but he knew that it was . purchased for about two-thirds of tho price that was being asked for wire at the time that the order was given. The question of providing roofing-iron had not been considered, but ho would have inquiries made, and if it should be found possible to get supplies at anything below tho market value of the material now, he would bo glad to help tho settlers in this way. He understood, however, that it was almost