WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1922, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

MEN IN HARD PLACES. SPECIAL TO GU AUDI AN. WELLINGTON, Feh. 24 Though the Executive of tiie Returned Soldiers’ Association lias expressed itself as satisfied from the evidence it liar, collected that the returned men placed on the land are doing “as well as can be expected in tlie circumstances,” there is plenty of evidence to sbo.v that tiiaily of them are in extremely hrtrd, if not wholly hopeless positions. The published abstracts of the reports furbished tO the Executive, indeed, make it piniil that a Ifirgb proportion of the settlers will he unable to “pull through” Without further substantial assistance froni the Stitte. Fully half of them are so deeply involved that nothing less than a return to the prices of two years ago can save them from disaster. The worst cases arc* those of men who took up second-class dairy land at first-class prices, and now find themselves saddled with obligations it is quite impossible for them to discharge with butter-fat at its present price. But these are by no means the only caries calling for immediate relief. Certainly not more than 10 per cent of the settlers afe deiii’g really well and probably tint more tliali 50 per cent are holding,their owl!. WHERE THE BLAME LIES.

The responsibility fop WJiat has happened is pretty widely distributed. Of course a great deal will be heard at election time about the indiscretions of tlie Government and the inefficiency of its officers, hut as a matter of fact the whole country ran mud on the question of soldier settlement when tlie men began to return from the front in their thousand®. It is true that Sir Joseph AVard after he had ictired from tlie National Cabinet urged in Parliament that the surpluses lie had accumulated during the war years should not he expended in the purchase of land. His idea was Gnat tlie money requited for settlement purposes should be borrowed at the moderate Mite of interest then ' prevailing and that the little nest egg of some fifteen or sixteen millions lie had laid aside should he retained hi London to assist the Government’s financing. As tilings have turned out, the suggestion was a very nappy one, hut the adoption of the idea would not have stayed the land boom, nor averted its deplorable effects. It is easy enough to see now that the money might have been much more advantageously employed than it was, hut three or four years ago the country's appreciation of the soldiers’ services had outrun its sober judgment. H’S AIAJFiTY’S OPPOSITION. -

Iran all accounts t'? reorganisation of His Majesty’s Onnosßion, in tie" <-f the approaching goner;: I .election, is progrcSsiltg apace. Though there are three or four Intbbbei's of ti e old Liberal Party slili disinclined to accept the leadership of Air Wilford, they abe not, perhaps with the exception of Air Vigor Brown, definitely irreconcilable. Air Brown, it is said, will listen to no overtures fr«m the new Liberal-Labour combination and will light it at tip

mils rather than surrender any par' of his personal independence, Alr.Wil ford and Air Statham, on their part express their readiness to face the in-

evitable without «the countenance . o the present member for Napier. The adhesion, of Air V.-itch and Air Kclle't. tlie independent Labour memUers, to the reorganised party is whole-hearted

and must assist materially in the consolidation of the “progressive” forces. Tihrtfe oi‘ four restless members of other Sections are expected to throw in their lot with the Opposition when released front their existing pledges by the dissolution of the present Parliament, and no doubt there will be a large crop of “Independents” among the new aspirants for representative honours. OFFICIAL LABOUR. Notwithstanding the fact that both Mr Wilfoi'd and Mr Statliam have stated emphatically that they will have neither part nor lot with extreme Labour, some of their followers, outside Parliament, are talking of an arrangement, either complete or in

course of negotiation, by which no Reform candidate will be assisted by vote-splitting when the parties join issue at the end of the year. Any arrangement of that kind, .however, would imply a compact between Mr H. F. Holland atld the leader of the new party which Would be entirely inconsistent with the latter’s professions. But the attitude of tie members of the official Labour Party" during the recent session suggested to many observers ‘ that Mr Holland and his friends were a little weary of their isolation and half inclined to modify their doetrinte that no bread is better than half a loaf. It is impossible that without in any way allying themselves with the new party, or refraining from opposing it, they may not make it a part of their tactics, as they did at the last general election, to assist the “no breaders” against the “half loafers.” A policy of that kind might work great changes in the complexion of Parliament.