CHICKENS COMING HOME.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1921, Page 1

CHICKENS COMING HOME.

(Lyttelton Times.)

j The inevitable results of the Govern- * ment’s soldier settlement policy are

putting in a very prompt appearance. In response to a request by the Returned Soldiers’ Association the Minister of Lands has agreed to postpone for six months the payment of interest by soldier settlers who can prove that they are holding their wool in preference to selling at ruling prices. We think the Minister has acted quite rightly in this instance. The soldiers must not be penalised for the errors of the Administration and however gross may be those errors, New Zealand is in duty bound to give the soldiers generous treatment. The leading features of the Government’s soldier settlement policy are probably familiar fo all our readers, for we have criticised them in season, and cut of season, ever since the policy was initiated. The cardinal defect of the policy from our point of view was that land was purchased at prices based upon the war value of produce, and that the Government's extensive purchases were allowed to operate in the direction of further inflating land values against the Government. As we have said, we have pointed out the defects of this policy ever since its inception and we have not l>eon alone in our views, fo they have been echoed by many of the Government’s most experienced officers.

In the annual report of the Land for Settlement Department for the year 15)17-18, when the land purchase scheme on behalf of soldiers had been in operation only a few months and on a relatively small scale, the following sentence occurs: ‘‘Generally the prices now ruling are such that it is found next to impossible to secure land at a price, even without the addition of the necessary charges that will leave any great great margin for working, consequently only the most experienced and energetic soldiers can look for the success they deserve.” Warnings on similar lines are to ls> found in later reports of Crown Land Commissioners and other experienced officers.

That the Government acted with both eyes wide open has been proved by a subsequent statement of Mr Guthrie who admitted frankly that lie had al-

ways realised that the Government’s I urchases were inflating land values. There is proof also of the Government’s cognisance of the principal facts ®f the situation in the instructions issued to land valuers to disregard market values during the war and post-war periods, as representing only a temporary phase. It has been quite obvious to us, and we think wo may also say that it must have been equally obvious to the Government, that when prices of produce receded after the war boom the soldier settlers would find themselves in financial difficulties from which they would have to be extricated at the expense of the community.

By discarding those statutory pro- \ isions intended to safeguard the State in the purchase of land, and bv paying prices sometimes two or three times as great as its own valuation for taxation purposes, the Government placed a dou- , Lie burden on the people of this country—the immediate burden of an excesI sive price and the prospective burden of Jan excessive price and the prospective | burden of postponements, rebates and releases to soldier settlers who found j themselves unable to meet their finan- : <-in 1 responsibilities. The second part j of the burden is thus early materialis- . ing. 1 Having danced to the music provided j by Mr Massey and Mr Guthrie, New j Zealand must now make some further . payments to the piper. The soldier seti tiers are in difficulties at this early date j because wool is down. Dairy produce and cereals are now falling rapidly in the world’s markets and the prospect i>Yjr the soldier settlors threatens to grow darker as time goes on. If the Government’s soldier settlement activities were at nil end we should not be disposed to waste much time crying over spilt milk, but a compulsory loan of six millions has recently been floated —or partly floated—to continue a process which even the Reform Press is beginning to c«H insane, and which is causing even the Farmers’ Union qualms of conscience. It is to he hoped that now the inevitable has happened and the consequences of the policy are so plain j that all who run may read, the Govern- | , n ent will realise that this particular form of subsidy to the squatter has become rather too scandalous for perpetuation