SOLDIERS DISCHARGED

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 107, 30 January 1919, Page 6

SOLDIERS DISCHARGED

, THE ADVANCES SCHEME. : Numbers of men who were in camp, ■ Irat had not an opportunity of active service overseas, are eager for information as to their position in regard to land settlement under a clause of the new Repatriation Act. .. An official explanation mentions that by this section of the Repatriation Act toe provisions of sections 2 and 3 of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, 1917, are extended' to apply to all discharged members of the Expeditionary Force, who, having, been classed as medically fit for service beyond the seas, were actually attached to a camp of military training as on November 12 last, when the armistice with Germany was signed. Section 2 of. theD.S.S. Act Rives the Minister of Lands authority, on the recommendation of the land toavd of the district concerned, to make advances for the purpose of assisting discharged soldiers towards— (a) The purchase of the fee simple of any private land or Native land, together with the, improvements thereon. x ;,;(h). The acquisition .by 'assignment or l transfer..,of any lease; of any' Crown land, settlement land, or other land' administered by a land board. (c) The clearing, fencing, draining, and general- improvement (including the erectioffi'of tmildirigs) of any lan;F owned in fee simple by a discharged soldier. (d) The discharge of any mortgage affecting tiny'Und owned in fee simplo by a.discharged soldier, or affecting any land administered by a land board, and held by a/dischargedsoldier under lease or license,:;' '.'.,.-' '

(e The purchase of plant, implements, stock, seeds, plants, trees, and such other things as may be'deemed necessary for .the successful occupation of any land .owned in fee. simple by a discharged soldier. ,

Section- ; 3 enables any discharged soldier, or, any two. or more'discharged soldiers to make application to the land board with a view to the acnuis.ition by the Crown on his or their behalf of any private land. '..

In one matter men who hnve not serve<l overseas are excluded. They are debarred from taking part in ballots for Crown , land. It was considered, when ithe'lmv : vras made,'that us the area of tills - land was distinctly limited it should bo reserved for ballots of men who had been to the front, or were still there. Otherwise the l.ind-or the best of it— -might be parcelled out before the active service soldiers had a chance to go to'a ballot. ■ ' '. .