THE GOVERNMENT AND SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 10, 7 October 1919, Page 8

THE GOVERNMENT AND SOLDIERS

Sir,—ln one of your "Notes of the Day" to-day, I noticed tlmt you point out that the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Joseph Ward, advocates that tho fourteen- millions sterling to be spent 011 the buying of land for soldiers' settlements should bo spread over two years. • . ; " Will you allow me to say that I think that this policy of buying land at present prices is altogether wrong. To spend fourteen millions on land now is moroly to convert tlio advance in land, due to the soldiers winning the war, and the high prices of commodities as the result of the war, into a cash payment to blio landowners. To spend fourteen millions in land is to give at least seven or eight millions of the money as a free gift to the landowners as compared with land values in 1914. Sir James Allen himself lias spotted this very point, but in quite another connection. Willi .regard to the purchase of the coal mines, lie -says: "No-proposal would bo moro satisfactory to coal mine owners than Stato purchase." Sir James Allen might have said. with equal truth and equal force, "No proposal would ho more satisfactory to land owners than Stato purchase." Yet Sir .Tames Allen wants this .country to convert the in- | Rated values of land into a easily payI ment to the land owners, and this inflated cash value paid with the money of the country Sir James Allen proposes to put.upon the shoulders of tlio sol- | diers who como under tlio land settleI mout scheme of the Government. I I iliold no brief for either Sir Joseph | Ward or Sir .Tames Allen, but I snv ! this: Sir James Allen proposed 41(1. per ! day as a irrntuity to the soldiers, but increased that, according to The Do.minI ion newspaper, to .£1 per month, or oightocnpence per day on September 1 of |l,;.- ..par, After the agitation of the soldiers nnd their deputation lo Pnr-]i->i"»n|. Sir .Tamos Allen increased the ! soldiers' gratuitv to Is. Gd. per day. Ife lias (old us Hint this amounts tn some six millions sterling; so while lie' is giving it with one hand to the soldier, he is taking it hack with .the other—and considerably' more—and givincr i- to the land owners and land speculators and land profiteers. And the land owner lends the money to the Government nl 5 per cent, and tlio soldier takes up the burden.

Thus, it seems to me that, under the Government scheme of land settlement _ for soldiers, the soldier—after winning the wat —is going to be nif.de t\ie slave of the Government and its land-owning supporters.—l am, etc., SMALL PA EM OWNER. October 1, 1919. [Our correspondent's assumed air of disinterested aloofness does not square with his very obvious distortion of facts in a way calculated to show the Government in an unfavourable light. His Contention carried to its logical conclusion would mean that the Government [•should purchase no land for soldiers at all, and no doubt the soldiers will be duly grateful for such a suggestion. As to soldiers' gratuities we have already exiwsod the pretence that the present | Government had decided on either 4!d. ; or Sd. ft (Jay before the deputation of j soldiers waited on Ministers. A corresi pondont who signs himself "Lieutenant,' ; Wellington Bogiinent," and whose letters | are sufficiently alike to have been penned !by "Small Farm Owner" himself, fol- ! lows up a previous communication .by j quoting from The Dominion of September 1, in an attempt to bolster up i the assertion that this paper on the I date mentioned announced tlint the gratuities would bo at the rate of Bd. a day. And this .is what he doe=. tie takes two isolated sentences, one of which he mutilates in. a vital resjwet, and quotes them as follow"Cabinet has dealt with the recommendations of the Defence Minister regarding the amount to.be paid, to soldiers by way of war gratuities." .."The rate of gratuity will bo approximately .£1 per month of service." This would make it anpear that wo had definitely stated that tho amount would bo .£1 a month. What we actually said was: "It Is' understood that the amount to be . asked (by Cabinet] ' will be in the neighbourhood of three millions. If so, then the rate of gratuity will be approximately .£l' per month of service." ' The, fact' that "Lientcnp.nt, Wellington Regiment," deliberately omitted tihese qualifying remarks in his pretence of quoting us sneaks for itself as to his bonafides.]