SOLDIER SETTLERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 123, 21 November 1932, Page 14

SOLDIER SETTLERS

ADMIRABLE SPIRIT

STATE'S OBLIGATION

Tho difficult times which are being experienced by soldier settlers are reflected in the annual report on discharged soldiers'settlements, presentedto Parliament recently. The statements of receipts show that tho amounts received annually on account of capital and revenue have progressively decreased from £1,963,653 'in 1928-29 to £1,195,832 for 1931-32. During tho year 817 ■ loans were authorised, involving a total of. £137,183. The total capital invested is now £17,244,237,- while reductions in capital amounting to £2,871,159 have been made. In tho seventeen years during which the system has been operating 15,123 applications have been made for land for settlement and 4065 allotments have been made, involving 1,428,557 acres. . , Commenting on the position, the Under-Secretary for Lands (Mr. W. Robertson) stated that the accounts reflected the troublous times the Dominion had been passing through. A great part of the: administration had turned arouud problems connected with keeping settlers on their farms. Unemployment and reductions in incomes had, in many' cases, raised difficulties in the matter of payment of instalments by mortgagors holding residential properties, but where the circumstances had justified relief the Department had endeavoured to ease the burden by suspending for a time the payment of tho principal part of the ' instalments falling due or by readjusting mortgages in the direction of extending the term for repayment on a lower instalment basis. The amounts outstanding on sundry debtors and postponement accounts had increased from £447,271 at 31st March, 1931, to £661,651 at 31st March, 1932. Cash receipts for the year had also fallen by £158,246, when compared with those of the. previous year. EX-SOLDIERS' DIFFICULTIES. Reports from the1 various land districts showed that' soldier settlers were meeting tho difficulties of tho times with an admirable spirit. The Department held the view that soldier settlement was still a long way removed from the stage where the role to be played by the controlling authority became principally that of collector of rent and interest. It would seem that the State's obligation to many of these men and their families had not. been, met. by placing them on the land ■ and carrying them to the' present point. Sympathetic guidance and control would be needed for a good many years yet if the j work was to be completed in a-fitting manner. The Department had gained an intimate knowledge of the special problems of soldier settlers through long and close association with their affairs, and was endeavouring to use that knowledge in the best interests of tho settlers and the State. - ■ • Difficulties were still being experienced in dealing with soldier current accounts, the report continued. There was a considerable difference between the operation of current. accounts by a firm which was fundamentally interested in trading in:stock and produce and those dealt with by the Department on behalf of discharged soldiers. The Department's work had. not; "becri'dbnb with the idea of profit, but. to establish men in homes ontho land.''Advances had been made in most cases without any great margin -of security\ Many of the accounts were not yet too sound, and'many-others covered onetnan farms where there was, in ordinary times, little more than.'a bare living, so that a constant and close watch over them and the farming methods adopted was necessary. ■