REPATRIATION WORK

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1925, Page 4

REPATRIATION WORK

statement by ahnistek of LANDS. AUCKLAND. Jan. •Jib Complete figures covering the Government's work in the repatriation of soldiers and the revaluation of the soldiers’ lands were given by the Hon [A. D. Al’Lood, Alinister of Lauds, at Thames. The figures cover operations to the end of 102-1. The Alinister said that, under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act, advances for purchase of stock and for improvements totalled £!,604.266. Advances to assist soldiers to acquire rural holdings and for discharging mortgages totalled £8.595,517. Under the Lands for Settlement Act the capital value of estates purchased for discharged soldiers’ settlements was £5,950,000. Under the llepatrialinu Act, loans for businesses, furniture, tools and unemployment sustenance totalled £2,300,480. The total sum involved was £30,.149.001. Dealing with revaluation, the Atini.ster said that implications for revaluations numbered 5847. and. ol that number, linal determination had been made in I 107 eases, or 88 per cent. Deductions recommended and adopted in 4272 eases were as follows:—On the capital value of leaseholds £1,225,015, and on mortgages £531,072. The Revaluations Hoard, continued the Alinister. had negotiated with private mortgagees ami unsecured creditep for Dm pur posy of having debts dr i bai ;.-f I or reduced. m alloui sol dims relief. The total amounts owing by soldiers so affected was £95,587, and reductions amounting to £02,820 had been secured.

The board had com|i!eted negotiatioiis fur the jxirc-lisise of private mortgages amounting to £23,50!. These had been purchased at a diseomit of £10,7110, or for an actual 'sum of £1:2,768. Seventeen of the twentyeight committee'; had finished their work, and it was Imped the final winding up of the scheme would be completed by March 31st. ‘■The Lands Department,” said Mr Al’f.eod, “is now a huge commercial concern, and not a simple survey department as formerly. The work thrown on the Depatrmcnt has quadrupled, and I am quite sure 'Parliament and people have not realised this, in many directions the Department is under-staffed. Governments are like individuals, they make mistakes, hut after close investigation l think the cost of our repatriation will he cheaper than in any other dominion of the Umpire. Tin's has been done without making our returned soldiers loafers and wasters. Wo have kept the men at work, and they have not lounged about the street corners and halls asking what is being done for them.” With regard to valuations, the Minister said lie was not afraid to justify every-step the Government had taken. The soldier to-day was standing five, fifteen and twenty times better than his civilian, neighbour across the fence. There was a tendency on the part of some soldier farmers, however, to persist in making the trouble a political one rather than a farming one. If that attitude were continued the men would lose the sympathy of those who had supported them.