The Chronicle LEVIN. TUESDAY, MAY 16. 1916. RETURNED SOLDIERS: AND THE LAND.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 May 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. TUESDAY, MAY 16. 1916. RETURNED SOLDIERS: AND THE LAND.

A profitable employment for returned soldiers would be found in poultry--1 msnig, but for the fluctuations in piic<> of prcdnce that have characterised the markets during the eight eeuniont.is In tost elapsed. A return to liiinnal values now lias eomc about. .end the hope that "springs eternal in the human breast" again is at' flux with the poultry-farmer, wherever ho yet survires. A great many, however, have sent practically all their birds to market, and are devoting their pre6<?nt energies to fruit culture, market gardening, and so forth, with more profitable results. The set-back experienced: hy the poultry industry is highly regrettable, for a lot of Government money has been spent im fostering poultry-raising, and a lot of expensive groundwork has been undertaken by small settlers who now find -heir knowledge unremunerative. If +he authorities "could" do anything to •secure a stable market price tor secondary grains, pollard and brnn, they certainly should net forthwith. The true interests of Now Zealand are bound up with the man on the land, not with market manipulators. If some guarantee of fair chance could | be given to returned soldiers quite a ! number of thorn could be induced to undertake this pleasant branch of industry ; an industry that exacts very little in the way of hardi labour, .ind whicli need entails only eight or line liuuio' Hoik per day n the poultiylarmei- i<> content to make thai timo his working span. The comparatively easy nature ol the work is> wflat is ue.?. table for returned soidiere; lor uuiurady ihey will nut be in a condition ui health to permit of their .oliou ing rifely the heavier, ltnfrc-exuet-mg life oi a settler on virgin Vjud.s. in ihia latter retspout, li seems to us that the Government, in its desire to do a fair thing by tUe~rotumed soldier, is moving along lines not liliely to be satisfactory. Tn the latest UoveMiuient Gazette appears a notice of the throwing-opeii of virgin lands in the iSouth island. for the benefit of rettimed soldiers. Here and there such a one may prove to be still physically iit tor labour, but we lear that"in the majority of such cases the "lure of the land" will be but a springe to trap victims. The Wovenimemt department charged with such matters wonVI do much better if it endeavoured uo find openings for the soldiers at oeekeeping, poultry-raising, or some similar light occupation on areas of from five to ten acres in the better-settled parts of New Zealand.